New York City DSA leaders forced the party's youth organization to withdraw its endorsement of a pro-Palestinian protest critical of Mamdani.

On Wednesday, hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators disrupted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s participation in a vigil on the third anniversary of October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza. The protesters denounced the mayor, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), for his growing accommodation to Zionism.

The vigil was organized by the liberal Zionist group Israelis for Peace to mark the Hamas-led attack on Israel that was used by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the casus belli to carry out the ongoing campaign of mass murder that has killed close to 74,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians. The DSA mayor chose to attend the Zionist vigil rather than events called by pro-Palestinian groups.

Wednesday’s political debacle for Mamdani is part of growing opposition among those who were attracted to the DSAer and voted for him due to his rhetoric in defense of Palestinians and, more broadly, his posture as an opponent of Trump and the Democratic Party establishment. Since taking office last January amid growing social anger and political radicalization, Mamdani has continually reassured the ruling class and the political establishment that he will protect their core interests.

Mamdani’s rightward shift is accompanied by an intensifying effort on the part of the New York City DSA to suppress dissent, including within its own organization. When the New York City YDSA and four student chapters (Hunter College, Lehman College, the City College of New York, and The New School) posted notices on social media endorsing the planned anti-Mamdani protest on October 7, the parent body responded swiftly.

  • Hadriscus
    1·
    4 days ago

    Why does a politician manage their image? really?

    If you believe that yelling at politicians is the only thing they listen to

    eh… no ?

    Yes this is the actual issue. In practice Palestinians have only gotten words and a tree whereas Zionist “antisemitism combatting” groups which organize trips to Israel including the occupied West Bank are getting millions from Zohran.

    👍🏼 I don’t know the groups enough to know what they do with their funds. I would hope that these millions are actually used to secure synagogues as they’re intended but perhaps that is overly naive of me.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
      1·
      4 days ago

      One can manage their image without being a Zionist this is how Zohran got elected to begin with. One of the orgs Zohran gave money to is JCRC which organizes paid indoctrination vacations to Israel.

      Council Members Kevin Riley, Sandra Ung, Nantasha Williams and Kamillah Hanks joined eight other colleagues on a trip to Israel in late November 2022. That was one of the longstanding “study tours” for influential New Yorkers organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. JCRC also pays the full cost, of about $5,000 to $7,500 per person, according to Tzipporah Shapiro, a spokesperson for the civic group.