Zohran Mamdani has made it impossible for liberal Zionists like me to protest Netanyahu’s UN visit

JTA – Watching a train wreck in real time, while mesmerising, is never fun. It can, however, be educational. 

By encouraging New Yorkers to protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he next comes to Gotham to address the UN General Assembly, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is preparing the ground for yet another opportunity to showcase anti-Israelism and antisemitism in its most radical forms. 

I’ve protested against Netanyahu’s previous visits to the city. But there is absolutely no reason for any of us who want to push for a more just Israel to collaborate in protests next month, and every reason to stay far, far away from them. 

Many, if not most, lifelong liberal Zionists, myself among them, are outraged, bordering on horrified, by the disastrous policies of the Netanyahu government. Our commitment was and is to the simultaneously Jewish and democratic State of Israel envisioned in its Declaration of Independence. While recognising Israel’s obligation to eliminate Hamas as an existential threat, we empathise with the continued suffering of the civilian population of Gaza. And we categorically condemn the violence perpetrated by Israeli – read Jewish – settlers against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. 

But for Mamdani, a good number of us would probably have wanted to express our anger publicly on Netanyahu’s next appearance in New York. We’ve done so before. On 22 September 2023, I was among several thousand Jews who rallied in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza to denounce the Netanyahu government’s crude legislative efforts to undermine the independence and authority of Israel’s judiciary. 

We did so out of a love for and commitment to Israel. We did so in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who had been protesting for months against Netanyahu’s autocratic disregard for democracy and the rule of law. 

Mamdani has made it impossible for me to do so again this year. I have not changed my mind about or my attitude towards Netanyahu, but I will not be drawn by Mamdani into standing alongside or anywhere near antisemites whose declared goal is the destruction of Israel. I suspect I am far from alone in holding these sentiments. 

After conceding in his by-now-notorious video that, contrary to his campaign promise, he does not have the authority to order the New York Police Department to arrest Netanyahu, Mamdani effectively called on New Yorkers to demonstrate against the Israeli prime minister by declaring that “one of the bedrocks of our city is protest”. 

Parenthetically, as a law professor, I must urge the New York City Corporation Counsel to explain to Mamdani that an indictment brought by a disgraced International Criminal Court prosecutor is not proof of anything. By calling Netanyahu a “war criminal” in his video, Mamdani exposed either his wilful misuse or his equally wilful ignorance of basic legal concepts and terminology. 

The mayor proceeded to double down on his “protest as bedrock” theme at a subsequent press conference, by declaring that “if anyone feels a level of frustration or opposition, protest is something that we will always respect. I leave it to New Yorkers themselves to make that decision.” 

His invitation leaves no doubt whatsoever in my mind that the anti-Israel, antisemitic agitators who screamed “Globalise the intifada”, “Death to the IDF”, “From the river to the sea”, and “Say it loud, say it clear: we support Hamas here” at past demonstrations outside synagogues and on university campuses will show up in force and with likeminded reinforcements and will regurgitate the same vitriol at an anti-Netanyahu rally as foreshadowed by Mamdani. And there is nothing any of us can do to prevent this from happening. 

Indeed, Mamdani himself may well give a modulated, carefully drafted, somewhat sanitised speech at the event in which he will take pains to eschew the extremist rhetoric of the mob he incited to begin with. He may even repeat his mantra that he considers himself the mayor of all New Yorkers, even those who disagree with him. The only question for those of us who took part in or spoke at previous anti-Netanyahu demonstrations is whether we will be anywhere near this one. I, for one, will not. 

So what can I and liberal Zionists like me do instead to express our continued repudiation of Netanyahu and his policies without joining forces with implacable enemies of Israel who reject its very existence? A separate counter-rally of our own might make us feel good but risks being seen as an irrelevant sideshow. 

One option might be a digital declaration signed by as many thousands of us as possible in which we make clear that we stand with Israelis like former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, and the Democrats’ Yair Golan who are seeking to oust Netanyahu and his coalition partners from power in the coming Israeli elections. Even if we cannot vote for Netanyahu’s political opponents, we can and we should assure them of our support as they try to bring Israel back from the precipice. 

But whatever we do, we must do so on our own, unshackled and untainted by Mamdani’s unconcealed hatred not just of Netanyahu but of Israel both as a State and as an integral part of our Jewish identity. 

• The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SA Jewish Report, JTA, or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.