Zohran Mamdani’s dad compares Israel to apartheid-era, calls Holocaust survivors ‘today’s perpetrators’ in resurfaced video
In a video that has just resurfaced, the father of Mayor‑elect Zohran Mamdani—Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani—said that Israel was like apartheid‑era South Africa and that “today’s perpetrator’s” included Holocaust survivors. The remarks come from a public lecture he gave on November 16 , 2002 at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.
In the talk, Mamdani portrayed both Israel and South Africa as settler‑colonial powers that view the native people with hostility. He warned that white Afrikaners wondered what they would feel if black South Africans were ever to come to power. “That same specter must also haunt the survivors of the Holocaust in Israel—yesterday’s victims turned today’s perpetrators,” he said, drawing a parallel to the plight of Palestinians.
Mamdani also invoked Hitler, asserting that the European bourgeoisie would never forgive a man who had brought colonial practices—including those used in Algeria, the Koulis in India, and in African colonies—to Europe. “The Holocaust was the imperial chickens come home,” he remarked.
He accused Israel of exercising “impunity” and “without accountability,” with U.S. backing. “There is one state that stands in defiance of practically every UN resolution that affects it. That’s the state of Israel,” he declared.
The same kinds of arguments are echoed by a wave of anti‑Israel activists protesting throughout the Gaza war that erupted after Hamas’ attacks on October 7 , 2023. Reports of antisemitic incidents, from campus campuses to synagogue harassment, have surged.
Canary Mission—a watchdog that tracks antisemitism, anti‑Israel and anti‑U.S. rhetoric on college campuses—uncovered the 23‑year‑old speech shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The group labeled Mahmood Mamdani “one of the most antisemitic voices in academia” for continuously spouting lies and distortions. “If not for his son’s fame, we might not know that this hateful rhetoric was infecting impressionable students’ minds year after year at Columbia,” the organization said.
Mamdani’s criticism of Israel has resurfaced as Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani has faced scrutiny for backing the BDS movement. The mayor‑elect has also called Israel an apartheid state and even offered to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should the leader enter New York City as a war criminal.
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