Like Father, Like Son: Mamdani Mimics His Father’s Anti-Israel Rhetoric

Democratic nominee for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani said he has helped his father, a radical Columbia University professor who has called for a “Third Intifadah,” edit his writings in an attempt to “stay engaged” with his work, audio reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon shows.

“I will help my parents, like editing their speeches or writings, just as, like, a fresh eye, to make it more accessible,” he said during a resurfaced 2017 interview on the AirGo podcast. “And that’s awesome, because I also get to stay engaged with what they’re saying and doing.”

The comments raise new questions about Mamdani’s support for the extremist views of his father, Mahmood Mamdani. The elder Mamdani’s latest book, dedicated to his son, repeatedly equates Jews with Nazis, rails against the “Judaization” of Israel by “Ashkenazi elites,” and claims that Israel’s existence proves that Hitler’s “Final Solution” worked. He has also appeared to justify suicide bombers as simply a “category of soldier” and called for a “Third Intifadah against settler colonialism.”

Mahmood Mamdani, who “specializes in the study of colonialism,” according to his Columbia bio, played down any intellectual influence he may have had over his son in an interview with the New York Times last month.

“He’s his own person,” the elder Mamdani said. “Now, of course what we do as his parents is part of the environment in which he grew up, and he couldn’t help but engage with it. That doesn’t mean anything is reflected back on us.”