The father of socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani maintains membership on the advisory council of an anti-Israel organization that endorses boycotts against Israel, consistently alleges Israeli "genocide," and has demonstrated support for suicide bombing tactics, according to a Fox News investigation.
Mahmood Mamdani, a Columbia University professor, serves as an advisory policy council member for the Gaza Tribunal, which was established in London in 2024 with the stated objective of awakening "civil society to its responsibility and opportunity to stop Israel's genocide in Gaza," Fox News reported.
The organization's website explicitly lists Mahmood Mamdani among its advisory policy council members and documents his participation in the group's official London launch event, according to Fox News. The tribunal's president, Richard Falk, has publicly outlined the organization's endorsement of BDS initiatives, stating online that "the aim of the Tribunal is or legitimize and encourage civil society solidarity initiatives around the world such as BDS."
The younger Mamdani has maintained his advocacy for BDS as recently as May, when he refused to acknowledge Israel's right to exist and declared his BDS support "is consistent with my core of my politics, which is non-violence," Fox News documented.
Mahmood Mamdani, who holds the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government position at Columbia University, has encountered social media criticism following the resurfacing of controversial book passages expressing sympathy for suicide bombing perspectives, Fox News found.
"Suicide bombing needs to be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism," the elder Mamdani wrote in his 2004 publication "Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror," according to Fox News. "We need to recognize the suicide bomber, first and foremost, as a category of soldier."
The Gaza Tribunal's founder and membership demonstrate extensive connections to anti-Israel movements, with at least one member having faced deportation from the United States due to terrorism associations, Fox News established.
Falk assured Fox News that Jewish voters in New York City "should not worry" about Mahmood Mamdani's tribunal connections or Zohran Mamdani's mayoral candidacy. "Both father and son are respectful of international law, the UN, human rights of all peoples, and the pacific settlement of political disputes," Falk told Fox News.
Falk maintains an extensive record of promoting anti-Israel positions and faced repeated accusations of utilizing his United Nations "Special Rapporteur" role to "spread unsubstantiated allegations against Israel," according to Canary Mission, a watchdog organization focused on exposing antisemitism, as cited by Fox News. During 2011 and 2014, Falk characterized Israel as a "colonialist" nation and alleged it pursued "ethnic-cleansing goals," positions he reiterated as recently as February during an interview, Fox News reported.
Falk generated controversy in 2007 by drawing comparisons between Israel's government and Nazi Germany, accusing them of implementing a "Palestinian Holocaust" and rhetorically questioning, "Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not," according to Fox News. This comparison prompted opposition from former Israeli UN Ambassador Itzhak Levanon regarding his 2008 UN nomination.
The Princeton University professor emeritus advocated for corporate boycotts in 2012 against companies conducting business with Israel, declaring they "should be boycotted until they bring their operations into line with international human rights and humanitarian law and standards," Fox News documented. An Anti-Defamation League spokesperson responded by warning the UN that Falk "has repeatedly abused his position as special rapporteur to unleash unrestrained hatred and disdain for Israel" and cautioned that the "United Nations should not be complicit in this wholly unjustified effort to single out Israel."
Additional tribunal members maintain anti-Israel affiliations beyond Falk, according to Fox News. The organization's launch press release mentioned Dr. Hatem Bazian's attendance, who serves as chairman of American Muslims for Palestine and co-founder of Students for Justice in Palestine, Fox News found. Bazian has generated controversy for decades through inflammatory rhetoric about Israel and Jewish people, including a 2014 convention speech where he urged attendees to "get to work" on implementing BDS campaigns on college campuses and conducting sit-ins at Congressional offices.
Bazian raised concerns in 2015 when he called for an "intifada in this country that changes fundamentally the political dynamics in here," which observers widely interpreted as advocating violence against Jewish people, Fox News reported. He subsequently stated, "They're gonna say some Palestinian being too radical – well, you haven't seen radicalism yet."
The academic has faced criticism for antisemitic social media posts that generated backlash from student organizations, including content mocking Hassidic Jews with messages stating "Mom, look! I is chosen! I can now kill, rape, smuggle organs and steal the land of Palestinians 'Yay' #Ashke-Nazi," according to Fox News. Another post suggested Jewish control of UC Berkeley, reflecting classic antisemitic tropes about Jewish "power."
Sami Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor who admitted conspiring to aid the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror organization in 2006, also participated in the Gaza Tribunal launch meeting, Fox News documented.
Al-Arian recently posted on X expressing his honor and pride in contributing to the Gaza Tribunal's "The Sarajevo Declaration," which accuses Israel of "genocide, and its decades-long policies and practices of settler colonialism, ethno-supremacism, apartheid, racial segregation, persecution, unlawful settlements, the denial of the right to return, collective punishment, mass detention, torture and cruel and inhuman treatment," according to Fox News.
The declaration proceeded to "call for an end of the smearing of UNRWA and other humanitarian workers, for the free and unhindered access of UNRWA," referring to an organization that has faced criticism for alleged terrorism connections, including supposed collaboration with Hamas, Fox News reported.
A federal judge once characterized Al-Arian as a "master manipulator" and leader within the terror organization, according to the Justice Department cited by Fox News. Following 30 years in the US before his 2003 arrest, he served a 57-month prison sentence and agreed to deportation to Turkey as part of his plea agreement for a single charge from an originally 17-count federal indictment.
Then-US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales stated in 2006 that the disgraced professor had denied terror group involvement for a decade before prosecutors assembled sufficient evidence for charges, Fox News noted.
"In his guilty plea, Al-Arian admitted that, during the period of the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s, he and several of his co-conspirators were associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad," the Department of Justice stated following his sentencing, according to Fox News. "He further admitted that he performed various services for the PIJ in 1995 and thereafter, knowing that the PIJ had been designated as a Specially Designated Terrorist and that the PIJ engaged in horrific and deadly acts of violence."
— Mahmood Mamdani (@mm1124) June 9, 2025
Socialist former UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has faced long-standing antisemitism accusations due to various anti-Israel statements, also holds Gaza Tribunal Advisory Council membership, Fox News found.
A 2020 Equality and Human Rights Commission investigation into antisemitism determined Corbyn's Labour Party violated laws in its handling of antisemitism complaints during his leadership, according to Fox News. Corbyn eventually faced Labour Party suspension over antisemitism charges and once referred to "friends" from Hamas addressing Parliament.
A 2019 poll revealed that 87% of Jewish people in Great Britain considered Corbyn antisemitic, citing numerous incidents and remarks, particularly his strong Palestinian support and perceived Israeli hostility, Fox News reported.
Zohran Mamdani's Israeli positions have generated extensive discussion throughout the mayoral campaign, sparking controversy by refusing to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada," which has become a rallying cry for anti-Israel protesters in the United States following Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 massacre in Israel, according to Fox News.
Mamdani, who co-founded Bowdoin College's Students for Justice in Palestine chapter during his four-year attendance, expressed support for academic Israeli boycotts in the school's newspaper, Fox News documented.
Jewish organizations throughout New York City have widely criticized Mamdani over his past positions and comments as he attempts to position himself for the November general election victory against current Mayor Eric Adams and former Governor Andrew Cuomo, both running as independents, Fox News concluded.
