Democratic mayoral nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani voting within the Nov. 4 common election. Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025.
Photograph by Shane O’Brien
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition workforce is riddled with antisemitic, anti-Zionist or anti-Israel exercise from members, together with one who stated “resistance is justified” following the Hamas terror assault on Israel in 2023, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) charged in a brand new report on Monday.
Representatives from the ADL, which has been monitoring Mamdani’s 400-member transition workforce since his victory on Nov. 4, stated they discovered “many examples” of people who’ve engaged in this sort of offensive rhetoric or motion outlined within the Dec. 22 report.
The ADL shared with New York News a social media put up by Kazi Fouzia, who’s on the mayor-elect’s employee justice committee, that reads “Resistance are [sic] justified when people are occupied,” lower than a day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror assault on Israel.
Screenshot courtesy ADL
In keeping with the report, which is the second ADL replace on Mamdani’s development into maoral workplace, the put up contains video footage from an anti-Israel protest occurring in Manhattan a day after the assault.
However Fouzia shouldn’t be the one workforce member who raised a pink flag for the ADL. Per the report, at the least 12 transition appointees expressed help for anti-Israel campus protests that rocked the town in 2024.
In keeping with the report, Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, appointed to the committee on youth and training, participated in a CUNY encampment and posted photographs in entrance of a banner with an inverted pink triangle, an emblem popularized by Hamas that glorifies violence, and the phrases “LONG LIVE THE RESISTANCE.”
“Shaakir-Ansari’s social media activities also include a post of a cartoon depicting Israel as a dog pushing a person representing Palestine off a bed,” the report notes.
The mayor-elect will take workplace on Jan. 1 and proceed to call officers to his administration.
New York News contacted his transition workforce to touch upon the report and search details about how precise appointments to the administration are being vetted, how transition workforce members are being chosen, and the established requirements for the administration’s hiring processes. The Mamdani marketing campaign has but to reply to our requests.
A professional-Palestine protester occupies the CUNY Graduate Middle in Could 2024.File photograph/Dean Moses
Scott Richman, regional director of the ADL in New York and New Jersey, stated he’s involved about Shaakir-Ansari’s and Fouzia’s actions.
“We will remain vigilant in holding the Mamdani administration to this basic standard,” he stated. “With that said, we are very concerned about these two individuals given their important responsibilities.”
Screenshot courtesy ADL
At the very least 20% of Mamdani’s transition workforce, per ADL, has ties to teams stated to be anti-Zionist, such because the College students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). SJP generated controversy final yr as a consequence of reviews of help from over 100 Columbia College college members and claims that the group aligns with Hamas.
Others on the workforce have been additionally named by the ADL for having antisemitic, anti-Zionist or anti-Israel connections.
“At a time when New York City is experiencing unprecedented levels of antisemitism, the highest across the country, we need leadership that stands unequivocally with the Jewish community,” Richman added.
Da Costa resignation after antisemitic social media posts revealed
The scathing report was launched lower than per week after Catherine Almonte Da Costa, whom Mamdani had simply introduced as director of appointments on Dec. 17, resigned after outdated antisemitic and anti-police posts from her social media accounts emerged.
In a single vile put up, Da Costa, who, in keeping with the New York Instances is married to a deputy metropolis comptroller who’s Jewish, wrote about “money-hungry jews.”
Catherine Almonte Da Costa, middle, a decide for the Zohran Mamdani administration, made antisemitic social media posts, the ADL stated on Dec. 18, 2025.Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Mamdani instantly accepted her resignation on Dec. 18, which a number of New York Jewish leaders applauded.
Vetting the mayor’s representatives
The controversy arose because the mayor-elect continues an effort to earn the belief of Jewish New Yorkers, lots of whom have questioned his dedication to their group.
In the meantime, Richman of the ADL famous that not all of Mamdani’s picks thus far raised issues. Actually, at the least 25 members have a previous relationship with ADL or its companions.
Nevertheless, he nonetheless strongly urged the incoming mayor to solely rent workers with applicable backgrounds for the administration.
“We urge mayor-elect Mamdani to demonstrate his stated commitment to all New Yorkers by ensuring that individuals with a record of antisemitism or open hostility toward Jews, Zionists, Israelis or the Jewish community have no place in the administration of the city with the largest Jewish population in the world,” he stated.
