WATCH: Zohran Mamdani called to end ‘Israeli violence’ against Palestine months before Oct 7 attack

An old video has circulated showing New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani chanting against “Israeli settler violence" at a rally in Manhattan, months before the October 7 attack in 2023. The footage was widely shared online and showed the Democratic Socialist state assemblyman from Queens shouting into a megaphone at an anti-Israel demonstration in Midtown.

The clip showed Mamdani chanting, “That’s what we’re calling for."

“We are calling for it because we know that the days of inconsistency, the days of drawing the lines in Palestine, those days are over," he added.

“What we are calling for is the end of our complicity as New Yorkers," he said.

The rally was held in support of a bill Zohran Mamdani introduced in the New York State Assembly. It was centred on ending tax-exempt status for organisations that raise money for Israeli military or settlement activity.

During his speech in the rally, Mamdani criticised what he described as a double standard in American politics when it comes to Palestinian rights.

“When I grew up in this city, I grew up hearing a term- ‘progressive except Palestine,’" he said.

“I saw the politicians that I admired speak of universal rights and then draw the line right when it came to Palestinians," he added.

Meanwhile, the Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair, the mother of New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, said in an old interview that her then 21-year-old son was "not an American at all." The old video has resurfaced, creating a buzz online. The interview is now being criticised because Nair used a few terms that some view as derogatory toward the United States.

In a 2013 interview, the filmmaker said about Mamdani that "he is a total desi". At the time, Mamdani was attending Bowdoin College, where he co-founded the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter and was pushing for academic sanctions against Israel.

"Completely. We are not firangs at all. He is very much us. He is not an Uhmericcan (American) at all. He was born in Uganda, raised between India and America. He is at home in many places. He thinks of himself as a Ugandan and as an Indian."