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Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York mayor, has told business leaders in the city he will not use the phrase “globalize the intifada” and discourage others from doing so, according to reports.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who won the Democratic nomination last month, has been under pressure to clarify his position on the phrase that many regard as a call to violence against Jews, and one that he had previously declined to condemn.
The 33-year-old made the commitment during a closed-door meeting with business executives hosted on Tuesday by the Partnership for New York City, an influential business body that represents banks, law firms and corporations, per the New York Times.
Many executives have expressed alarm at Mamdani’s positions, which they consider to be anti-business and risk driving corporations and the tax base of wealthy New Yorkers from the city.
But his cautious defense of the phrase has brought accusations that he is fostering antisemitism. He previously told the US news show Meet the Press that the term was “not language that I use” but that “I don’t believe that the role of the mayor is to police speech.”
Mamdani explained at the Tuesday meeting that many use “globalize the intifada” as an expression of support for Palestinians. He said that, for him, the phrase means protest against the Israeli occupation of Gaza, according to the Wall Street Journal. Mamdani also said he is willing to discourage the specific language, but not the idea behind it.
During his campaign for mayor, he’d explained that the word “intifada” had been used in translations by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to describe a Jewish uprising against the Nazis in Warsaw in 1943.
He told reporters at the time: “It pains me to be called an antisemite.”
Many New York business leaders, including Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan; Steve Schwartzman of Blackstone; Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America; Larry Fink of BlackRock; and David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, did not attend the meeting.
“[Jamie Dimon] had other commitments and was unable to attend,” a JPMorgan spokesperson told the New York Post.
Just days ago, Dimon lambasted Mamdani at an event in Ireland, calling the mayoral hopeful “more of a Marxist than a socialist”.
“And now you see these Democrats falling all over themselves saying, ‘Well, he’s pointing out some real problems, affordable housing and grocery prices,’” Dimon continued, before claiming Mamdani pushes “the same ideological mush that means nothing in the real world”.
Mamdani reportedly told business leaders at the meeting that his goal is not to drive business from the city. Kathy Wylde, head of the business group, described the attitude to Mamdani among her members as “guarded.”
“But most recognized that he’s a smart young man and a good communicator and the proof will be in the pudding,” Wylde told the Times.
New York Democrats, Hakeem Jeffries, minority leader in the House, and senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, have not yet endorsed Mamdani for mayor.
“What ‘globalize the intifada’ means is really wrong and should be condemned,” Schumer told the Times.
Mamdani faces two independent mayoral candidates in November’s election, incumbent mayor Eric Adams and former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, as well as Republican Curtis Sliwa.
