Chants of "we support Hamas" and "globalize the intifada" erupted outside a Queens synagogue Thursday at an anti-Israel event promoted by a Muslim group with extensive ties to New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Dozens of keffiyah-clad activists appeared in Kew Gardens Hills to protest an event to promote land sales in Israel. Palestinian Assembly for Liberation-Awda, a virulent pro-Hamas group, organized the protest against an Israeli real estate company it claims to be selling "stolen Palestinian land." Muslim American Society of New York (MAS), one of the largest Islamic groups in the state, promoted the event on its social media accounts, and members of MAS’s Youth Center posted live videos from the protest.
"Join us today and at future protests to stop the sale of stolen palestinian land being sold right here in NYC!" reads an MAS Youth Center post.
Mamdani has deep ties to MAS New York and MAS Youth Center. After his election, Mamdani selected Hannah Towfiek, the political director at MAS Youth Center, to serve on his mayoral transition committee on youth & education and MAS New York executive director Sherif Ahmed to serve on his transition committee on community organizing. Mamdani’s transition team members "will be tasked with not only making personnel recommendations but policy recommendations."
A familiar wave of anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, and anti-Semitic chants marked the Queens protest. Videos show protesters shouting, "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free," and "there is only one solution: intifada revolution," both widely viewed as calls to attack Israel and Jews.
"Say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here," protesters also chanted, according to video published by Times of Israel correspondent Luke Tress.
New York state assemblyman Sam Berger, a Democrat who represents Kew Gardens Hills, called the event a "horrific" display of "anti-Semitic" rhetoric. Rep. Grace Meng (D., N.Y.) rebuffed the protesters’ pro-Hamas chant: "No, we don’t support Hamas in Queens," she wrote.
It could mark an early test for Mamdani, who faced intense scrutiny during his campaign for refusing to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and refusing to condemn slogans like "Globalize the intifada."
In November, following Mamdani’s election, anti-Israel groups protested a similar event, also held at a synagogue, where protesters hurled anti-Semitic slurs and calls for violence. Mamdani lightly criticized the protesters, but also took shots at the Israel group that held the real estate event, stating that "sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law."
Berger called on Mamdani before the protest to issue an "immediate condemnation of this demonstration." Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
MAS New York and MAS Youth Center have long espoused pro-Hamas rhetoric. Abdullah Akl, the advocacy director at MAS Youth Center, led a chant at a protest in March 2024 that called on Hamas to "strike Tel Aviv." Mohammad Badawy, the MAS Youth Center’s resident scholar, called last year for the "destruction of the illegitimate Zionist occupiers and all of their supporters" and encouraged "all those resisting against them by any means necessary."
Mamdani selected numerous radicals to serve on his transition team and in the administration. Mamdani fired his initial administrative secretary, Catherine Almonte Da Costa, after just one day on the job over resurfaced social media posts stating "Money hungry Jews smh" and "Far Rockaway train is the Jew train."
Mamdani selected Tamika Mallory, a cofounder of the Women’s March, to serve on his transition team. Mallory was booted from that organization in 2019 over her friendship with anti-Semitic preacher Louis Farrakhan. Another Mamdani transition team member, Mysonne Linen, is a longtime acolyte of Farrakhan. Linen served seven years in prison for armed robberies against two taxi drivers, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
