Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) advised New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to rein in “blatantly antisemitic’ supporters, according to a new Jewish Insider interview.
“I’ll say this about Mamdani or any other leader,” Shapiro said, according to Jewish Insider. “If you want to lead New York, you want to lead Pennsylvania, you want to lead the United States of America, you’re a leader.”
“I don’t care if you’re a Republican or Democratic leader or a democratic socialist leader,” he added. “You have to speak and act with moral clarity, and when supporters of yours say things that are blatantly antisemitic, you can’t leave room for that to just sit there. You’ve got to condemn that.”
Mamdani, a democratic socialist, recently shocked American political observers with his win over political heavyweight and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for mayor. He has also faced criticism over remarks he made in which he avoided condemning the phrase “globalize the intifada” and likened it to the Warsaw ghetto uprising amid the Holocaust.
Pro-Palestinian activists have maintained that the phrase only refers to liberation for Palestinians to have the right to their own state and doesn’t endorse calls for violence. However, pro-Israel activists and many Jewish people see the phrase as calling for a worldwide uprising to enact violence against Zionists, who back Israel’s existence, and Jewish people more broadly.
Mamdani has said he would not use the phrase and would dissuade others from using it amid scrutiny over his unwillingness to fully condemn the expression, multiple outlets reported recently.
The Hill has reached out to Mamdani’s campaign for comment.
