Far-left New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani said his view on the phrase “globalize the intifada” has changed as he appears to be changing his position to help him electorally.
Mamdani told MSNBC host Al Sharpton on “PoliticsNation” that he would now “discourage” others from using it. The 33-year-old Democratic Socialist said the shift came after a rabbi told him the phrase reminded her of bus bombings and restaurant attacks targeting Jews in Israel.
He said there was a “gap in intent” between those who use the phrase to protest Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and the way many Jews and pro-Israel New Yorkers hear it as a threat.
The American Jewish Committee defines the phrase as a rallying cry for “aggressive resistance against Israel.”
Sharpton noted some of his own past comments had been “misunderstood,” without giving examples.
He pressed Mamdani on whether his “personal views” on intifada — mispronounced as “the intifitada” — have shifted.