Israeli minister calls for emigration – “City handed its keys to a Hamas supporter”

Israeli Minister Amichai Chikli, responsible for diaspora affairs and the fight against antisemitism, has called on New York's Jewish residents to emigrate to Israel following the election victory of left-leaning Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. "The city that once stood as a symbol of global freedom has handed its keys to a Hamas supporter," Chikli wrote Wednesday on the online news service X. "I invite the Jews of New York to seriously consider building a new home for themselves in Israel."

Mamdani won the mayoral election in New York on Tuesday. The 34-year-old self-proclaimed "democratic socialist" decisively defeated Andrew Cuomo, the candidate endorsed by Trump. Mamdani belongs to the left wing of the Democratic Party. He is the first Muslim to hold the office.

New York is home to approximately 1.3 million Jews – the largest Jewish community outside of Israel. Chikli stated that the city would "never be the same after Mamdani's election, especially not for its Jewish community."

Although Mamdani demonstratively affirmed Israel's right to exist shortly before the election following sharp criticism, his controversial statements about Israel offended many New York Jews. For example, Mamdani accuses Israel of "genocide" against the Palestinians in its actions in the Gaza Strip. However, he made no comment on the Islamist group Hamas, whose attack on Israel triggered the Gaza War.

Chikli's accusations were echoed by other Israeli politicians on Wednesday. Opposition politician Avigdor Lieberman of the Yisrael Beiteinu party wrote on X that New York had "elected a racist, populist, and avowed Shiite Islamist as mayor." Far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir declared: "Anti-Semitism has triumphed over common sense." Mamdani, he said, was "a supporter of Hamas, an enemy of Israel, and an avowed anti-Semite."