An event was held on Saturday night at Brooklyn College with participation from independent Jewish Senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic-Socialist candidate for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
The event, titled "Fighting Oligarchy," drew criticism for alleged "cynical use" of a public institution for campaign purposes.
For example, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a former member of the City University of New York Board of Trustees, claimed this was a "clearly political event." Moreover, other candidates, including incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Republican rival Curtis Sliwa, were not invited – heightening allegations of a lack of balance.
Question from "transgender Jew"
Among the questions at the event, one was directed by a student who introduced herself as a transgender Jew. She accused the college administration and security forces of "intimidation and exclusion" of students following anti-Israel protest encampments on campus, and of firing several faculty members who she said were dismissed solely for supporting the protests.
Mamdani responded by saying this represents "criminalization of solidarity for Palestinian rights." According to him, what happened at Brooklyn College is not an isolated case but "part of a broader phenomenon of suppressing the rights of academics and students across the US."
Mamdani addressed the deployment of police forces to campuses, particularly around the anti-Israeli demonstrations and encampments that were established last May. "Sending officers to student compounds does not restore security, but rather exacerbates insecurity," he emphasized. He even quoted current Mayor Eric Adams, who said, "New Yorkers shouldn't have to choose between security and justice," and promised to implement this in practice.
"I am committed to real security," Mamdani said, "not to slogans that serve to justify oppression. As mayor of New York, I will ensure that students can demonstrate and express their opinions without fearing excessive use of force." With this, the candidate tried to position himself as a direct alternative to Adams' current security policies.
Since October 7, a series of anti-Israeli demonstrations, some supporting Hamas and some including clear identification symbols with terror elements, including flags of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, have flooded campuses across the US. These protests, which tend to erupt into actual violence, frequently call for "intifada revolution," for additional attacks in the style of October 7, and even for Israel's destruction openly.
Protests of this type have often created a hostile and unsafe environment for Jews. In extreme cases, they have led to the deployment of police forces to clear the protests on campuses in cases such as "takeovers" of institutional buildings and failure to evacuate protest encampments.
Mamdani comes with a record of controversial statements regarding Israel and Jews in general. The mayoral candidate publicly supports the boycott campaign against Israel, opposes Zionism, defends statements that defined the war in Gaza as "genocide," and even refused to condemn the call to "Globalize the intifada," which is associated with anti-Jewish violence. Furthermore, he declared that as mayor, he would order the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he set foot on New York soil due to the arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
