NEW YORK — Zohran Mamdani, the leading candidate in New York City’s mayoral race, blamed Israel for police violence in New York during a 2023 conference, according to video that surfaced on Monday.

“For anyone to care about these issues, we have to make them hyper-local. We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF,” Mamdani said at the 2023 national convention for the far-left Democratic Socialists of America.

“We have to make it materially connected to their life,” he said. “We are in a country where those connections abound, especially in New York City, you have so many opportunities to make clear the ways in which that struggle over there is tied to capitalist interests over here.”

Mamdani made the comments on a panel titled, “Socialist Internationalism: The Solution to the Crisis of Capitalism.” Much of his discussion on the panel focused on Israel.

In addition to the statement about police, Mamdani discussed how he got his start in political organizing with pro-Palestinian activism, criticized the US for supporting Israel’s military, and accused Israel of apartheid.

“Our socialism is a socialism of solidarity across all borders. That includes the Palestinians,” he said.

Mamdani is a longtime anti-Israel activist who has said the Palestinian cause is central to his identity. His anti-Israel rhetoric has alarmed many Jews, sparking a series of warnings from Jewish leaders who say that his vilification of Israel could spur hatred against Jews.

Jews in New York City are targeted in hate crimes far more than any other group.

Mamdani is polling ahead of former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, a pro-Israel........

© The Times of Israel