Mamdani’s antisemitism plan includes program co-led by controversial Arab group

A New York City program that Mayor Zohran Mamdani says will combat antisemitism involves a partnership with aggressively anti-Israel activists.Mamdani faces growing pressure to address antisemitism as city police report increasing hate crimes targeting mostly Jews since his January inauguration. The self-described socialist mayor faced rebuke throughout his 2025 campaign over anti-Israel advocacy, which was driven in part by Sarsour, his close political ally. Mamdani’s office and AAANY did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment.The group already received $3.3 million from New York City between 2017 and 2024, according to an analysis of records by watchdog group OpenTheBooks. Mamdani’s administration continued the city’s relationship with AAANY in anti-hate efforts. Mamdani’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes recently convened a meeting with AAANY and other partners to “strengthen collaboration,” AAANY said on Facebook last week.AAANY and other PATH partners “work together to combat antisemitism, anti-LGBTQ+ hate, Islamophobia, anti-Asian hate, anti-Arab hate, anti-Black racism, and other forms of bias while fostering inclusion, solidarity, and safety for all New Yorkers,” the hate crimes office’s director said in July City Council testimony.A new $6 million batch of PATH funding will go to “organizations such as the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) that focus on hate crime prevention and survivor support,” Mamdani’s office said Tuesday, not specifying other recipients.Sarsour, AAANY’s executive director until 2017, came under scrutiny during her tenure for comments perceived as antisemitic, such as declaring that “nothing is creepier than Zionism.” She repeatedly denied the accusation.The organization also condemned Columbia University and the New York Police Department in April 2024 for authorizing arrests at an unlawful encampment protest against Israel. The demonstration lasted two weeks as participants blocked Jews from campus areas, threatened them, and openly praised Hamas, according to multiple reports. AAANY called the police response “a cruel irony” because Columbia is “the longtime home of the visionary Palestinian intellectual Edward Said,” the late scholar celebrated for popularizing the term “settler colonialism” to describe Israel.“AAANY calls on the university’s leaders to drop all charges against its students, whose activism deserves the institution’s protection — not suppression and brutal arrests,” the organization said. “The growing tide of retaliation against pro-Palestinian voices in academia and other American institutions is a harbinger of even worse to come, and we implore our allies to join us in our fight for the lives of our brothers and sisters in Palestine and in our free speech rights here at home.”DSA CANDIDATE INTERNED AT HAMAS ‘GREENHOUSE’ SCHOOL INFAMOUS FOR TERRORIST RECRUITMENTThe activists even condemned the very city government funding them by the millions in an October 2023 post after former Mayor Eric Adams spoke against post-Oct. 7 protests. “President [Joe] Biden, Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams, and government entities and educational institutions, including the New York City Department of Education, have all expressed absolute support for Israel with no consideration given to Israel’s continued flaunting of international law and universal human rights,” AAANY said.“These entities must hold themselves accountable for their gross lack of leadership,” the group added.