Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister for diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, has called Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in the US Senate, a “self-hating Jew” and a “Palestinian”.
Writing on X, Chikli, a prominent member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, said: “The phenomenon of Jews who hate their own people is a well-documented and recurring pattern throughout history. It’s called a self-hating Jew.”
He continued: “We see this with Jewish senators and members of Congress in the Democratic Party, such as the ‘Palestinian’ Chuck Schumer, who is promoting the candidacy of a Hamas-fan advocating the globalisation of the Intifada.”
This was apparently a reference to the fact that Schumer congratulated anti-Zionist candidate Zohran Mamdani on his victory in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary last month.
Schumer has not formally endorsed Mamdani, who supports a blanket boycott of Israel and has accused it of perpetrating genocide – though there is no evidence that he has offered support for Hamas, contrary to Chikli’s claim.
Schumer said of Mamdani last month: “I have known Zohran Mamdani since we worked together to provide debt relief for thousands of beleaguered taxi drivers and fought to stop a fracked gas plant in Astoria. He ran an impressive campaign that connected with New Yorkers about affordability, fairness, and opportunity.”
Schumer added that he would meet with Mamdani soon.
Last month, Mamdani defended the slogan “globalising the intifada,” which many interpret as a call to target Zionists around the world.
“What I hear [in that chant]... is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights,” Mamdani said on a podcast when asked about how he interpreted the phrase.
He added that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum used “intifada when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic," because "it’s a word that means ‘struggle’.”
The museum condemned Mamdani’s use of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to promote his anti-Israel ideology.
Chikli’s remarks come after US President Donald Trump also called Schumer a “Palestinian” on Tuesday.
“He’s a great Palestinian. He’s become a Palestinian, he has abandoned the Jews,” Trump told a reporter.
In March 2024, Schumer, who has long been a senior pro-Israel voice within his party, delivered a speech that broke with decades of non-intervention in Israel's democracy by top Republican and Democrat politicians.
“As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me: The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7” he said, adding that “a new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel, at a time when so many Israelis have lost their confidence in the vision and direction of their government”.
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