‘A huge test’
A block in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Sheepshead Bay has become one of the flashpoints of pro-Palestine advocacy in the city, which has reached a fever pitch during Israel’s war in Gaza.
On an afternoon this month, activists gathered in front of the Mini-Circuits factory, decrying its role in supplying parts to Israel’s military, which has killed 68,280 Palestinians in the enclave since October 23, 2023.
Mamdani’s political rise has been cheered by many of those deeply engaged in pro-Palestine activism, both for his staunch support of Palestinian rights and for what some hope will be a pivot away from how the city has portrayed the demonstrations.
Adams has said pro-Palestine protesters in the city spew “anti-Semitism” and have been fuelled by outside agitators. Tisch, his police commissioner, oversaw the NYPD’s repeated deployments to university campuses as well as a police training that reportedly labelled watermelons and keffiyehs as anti-Semitic symbols.
Nasreen, the founder of Mamas 4 a Free Palestine, who declined to give her last name for fear of harassment, said at the Brooklyn protest that she worries Mamdani will succumb to the “bothsideism” that has long dominated discourse on Israel and the Palestinian territory it occupies.
“Obviously, I support Zohran, but I believe everybody has to be held accountable. And he’s been backtracking a lot,” she said.
Maryam Alwan, one of the leaders of student-led protests at Columbia University, who was not at the Brooklyn protest, said she was trying to be more “radically optimistic” about Mamdani and how he would respond to protests and encampments, which reached a fever pitch last year.
She noted that Mamdani’s father, Mahmood Mamdani, a leading scholar at Columbia in postcolonial studies, conducted a teach-in at the university’s encampment before it was cleared by the NYPD. The younger Mamdani was also a vocal advocate for Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent US resident targeted by the Trump administration for his pro-Palestine advocacy.
“I think just having someone like Mamdani in office who would be committed to upholding the truth and not spreading harmful rhetoric would be extremely meaningful because we’ve learned with the kidnapping of Mahmoud and all of the students around the country that this rhetoric is not harmless,” said the 23-year-old, who graduated from Columbia this year. “It can very quickly turn into something concretely dangerous for the people who are being accused of anti-Semitism.”
Many private universities like Columbia have memorandums of understanding with the city that allow them to request the NYPD intervene on campus, as they did repeatedly over the last two years, clearing encampments and arresting students, including Alwan. The NYPD maintains the right of refusal.
As Trump has upped his pressure on those schools by threatening their federal funding, administrators may be more zealous about activating the police to respond to future protests, Alwan said.
That could lead to a major decision for Mamdani, who has remained a staunch supporter of the right to protest on the campaign trail.
“I think it would be a huge test because I think that would be one of the biggest ways that we can see if he would live up to his word in terms of supporting the Palestine movement writ large,” Alwan said.
“It could be a big flashpoint for sure.”