New Yorkers deserve to know who shapes the ideology of those seeking power. State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, often celebrated as a progressive voice from Queens, has deep family ties to a radical anti-Israel network. His father, Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani, sits on the advisory council of the so-called Gaza Tribunal — a body whose members include individuals linked to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

A Tribunal of Terror Ties

The Gaza Tribunal, held most recently in Istanbul in October 2025, brands Israel and the United States guilty of “genocide.” But behind the humanitarian language lies a network of extremists. The council includes Ramy Abdu, identified by Israeli intelligence as a Hamas operative in Europe, who has been photographed with Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Muhammad al-Jamassi.

According to an i24NEWS investigation, the Tribunal “featured speakers tied to U.S.-designated terror groups.” Among them was Sami Al-Arian, who pled guilty to aiding Palestinian Islamic Jihad — yet was invited to serve as a juror at the event. Despite these known affiliations, Mahmood Mamdani chose to participate, lending his academic prestige to a platform that legitimizes terrorism.

An Ideology That Excuses Terror

Mahmood Mamdani’s participation isn’t incidental. His published writings have argued that suicide bombings should be understood as ‘modern political violence rather than barbarism’, an intellectual defense of terrorism cited by JFeed. This worldview reframes murderers as “resistance fighters” and turns Hamas’s atrocities into political theory.

As Gregg Roman told the New York Post, “Mamdani’s father is openly cavorting with people responsible for terrorism against Israel. Like Father Like Son”

The younger Mamdani’s record echoes the same anti-Israel hostility. Before his political career, Zohran Mamdani was active in campus boycott campaigns and proudly embraced an anti-Zionist identity, calling for Israel’s isolation on the world stage. As an elected official, he has continued to advance positions deeply antagonistic to Israel and the Jewish community, mirroring the ideological path laid out by his father.

What emerges is not coincidence but continuity — a shared framework that rejects Israel’s legitimacy and normalizes those who target its civilians.

Why It Matters for New York

The future of New York’s leadership cannot be entrusted to figures aligned — directly or ideologically — with people tied to Hamas and PIJ. The Gaza Tribunal’s mission is to weaponize international law to delegitimize Israel’s right to self-defense. By participating in it, Mahmood Mamdani joined hands with the architects of anti-Israel propaganda and terror networks. His son’s political rise extends that influence into the heart of New York’s civic life.

New Yorkers deserve leaders who stand unequivocally against terrorism — not families who share platforms, networks, and worldviews with those who justify it.