Zohran Mamdani tried to “sanitize ‘globalize the intifada’” in a way that is “especially offensive to survivors,” the museum said.
June 19, 2025 08:39
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum has lashed out at Zohran Mamdani, an anti-Israel New York state representative who is running for mayor of New York City, stating that he was “exploiting the museum and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to sanitize ‘globalize the intifada’ is outrageous and especially offensive to survivors.”
“Since 1987, Jews have been attacked and murdered under its banner,” the museum stated about the phrase. “All leaders must condemn its use and the abuse of history.”
While the museum didn’t mention Mamdani by name, Mamdani is drawing criticism for defending “globalize the intifada” as a legitimate expression of Palestinian rights, by claiming that the US Holocaust museum used the phrase to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Tim Miller, a podcaster for The Bulwark, asked Mamdani about the phrase in an interview on Tuesday.
“Ultimately, what I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights,” Mamdani said. “I think what’s difficult also is that the very word has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means ‘struggle.’”
“As a Muslim man who grew up post-9/11, I’m all too familiar with the way in which Arabic words can be twisted, can be distorted and can be used to justify any kind of meaning,” he added.
Mamdani said on the podcast that as mayor, he would focus on keeping Jewish New Yorkers safe amid rising antisemitism in the city but would not police speech.
“I am someone who, I would say, am less comfortable with the idea of banning the use of certain words,” he said. “That, I think, is more evocative of a Trump style approach to how to lead a country.”
Andrew Cuomo, a former New York governor running against Mamdani in the Democratic primary, condemned the statement.
When Mamdani “was asked a direct question about what he thought of the phrase ‘globalize the intifada,’ he dismissed it as ‘language’ that ‘is subject to interpretation,’” Cuomo told JNS. “That is not only wrong. It is dangerous.”
“At a time when we are seeing antisemitism on the rise and witnessing once again violence against Jews resulting in their deaths in Washington, D.C., or their burning in Denver, we know all too well that words matter,” he said.
“As the US Holocaust Museum so aptly said, all leaders or those running for office must condemn the use of this battle cry,” he told JNS. “There are no two sides here.”
“I call on all candidates running for mayor to join together to denounce Mr. Mamdani’s comments, because hate has no place in New York,” he said.
Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, stated that Mamdani cannot keep Jewish New Yorkers safe as mayor if he legitimises the “globalize the intifada” slogan, which Deutch said is a call for violence.
“In the past month, one terrorist murdered two young employees of the Israeli embassy outside a Jewish event at a Jewish museum in Washington, and another terrorist set 15 people on fire in Boulder at a peaceful march for the hostages still held by Hamas terrorists,” he stated. “What did they have in common? In D.C., the terrorist ‘did it for Palestine’ and in Colorado, he wanted to ‘kill all Zionist people.’”
“This antisemitic terrorism can only be stopped when political leaders condemn this dangerous rhetoric rather than make excuses for it,” he stated. “That’s one urgent step to keep Jewish New Yorkers and all New Yorkers safe.”
Representative Ritchie Torres stated that “the ‘globalize the intifada’ movement has ignited a powder keg of terror and violence against Jews in America—from the firebombing of a Jewish governor’s home to the cold-blooded assassination of an Israeli and Jewish couple to a Molotov cocktail hurled at Jews demanding the release of hostages.”
“To compare the instigators of antisemitic violence to Jews seeking liberation from Nazi death camps, as Zohran Mamdani has done, is not only disgraceful,” he stated. “It is disqualifying.”