New York, NY (May 16, 2026)

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing fierce criticism from Jewish and pro-Israel advocates after marking Nakba Day with a message critics say presented a one-sided and deeply misleading account of Israel’s founding.

In his post, Mamdani described Nakba Day as a day remembering the displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949, during and after the creation of the State of Israel. He also shared the story of a New Yorker identified as a Nakba survivor, framing the message around family memory, home, and loss.

Today marks Nakba Day, an annual day of remembrance to commemorate the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949 during the creation of the State of Israel and the year that followed.

Inea is a New Yorker and a Nakba survivor. She shared her story with us… pic.twitter.com/z2PBOaJq5Z

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) May 15, 2026

The mayor’s statement omitted essential historical context, including the 1947 United Nations partition plan, which called for separate Jewish and Arab states, and the rejection of that plan by Arab leaders. The following year, after Israel declared independence, armies from neighboring Arab countries joined the war against the newly established Jewish state. Of course the mayor forgot to mention that part.

Mamdani also failed to acknowledge the roughly 850,000 Jews who were expelled or forced to flee Arab countries and Iran during the 20th century, many in the years following Israel’s establishment.

The backlash comes at a time of heightened fear among Jewish New Yorkers, following antisemitic vandalism in Queens, hostile demonstrations outside synagogues, and rising concern over anti-Israel rhetoric spilling into intimidation of Jewish communities.

Mamdani’s post turned a complicated and painful history into political messaging that casts Israel’s birth as a singular act of wrongdoing while ignoring the war launched against it and the Jewish refugee crisis that followed.

A New York City mayor has a responsibility to speak with historical balance, especially in a city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel.

Mamdani, you should focus on New York. You’re doing a fantastic job driving out business leaders and asking Governor Hochul for billions more in funding.

Aviva Klompas: “Shame on you Mamdani. This is political propaganda masquerading as compassion. Mamdani erases the fact that the Arab world rejected the UN’s partition plan which would have created a Palestinian state and instead launched a war to destroy the newborn Jewish state in 1948.

He ignores that roughly 850,000 Jews were expelled or forced to flee Arab countries in the years that followed. And he presents “Nakba Day” as though it is about grief, when in reality it is a movement that rejects Israel’s existence (and along with it millions of Jews).

In a city where Jews are already facing rampant harassment and violence, this kind of one-sided historical revisionism fuels hostility toward Jews.”

Stop Antisemitism: “Nakba Day – on May 14, 1948 Israel declared its independence. A coalition of five Arab nations including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq immediately declared war and invaded Israel.

Israel won the war. The Arab nations created a day to commemorate the embarrassing loss.”

Dr. Maalouf: “The so-called “Nakba” is when Arabs (not a single person identified as ‘Palestinian’ back then) started a war of extermination against Holocaust survivors and Jewish refugees from Muslim countries, and lost it. The UN had partitioned the land between Jews and Arabs (most of whom had only arrived after Jews developed the land). The Jews accepted it. The Arabs rejected it, started a war and lost it, and created a day to commemorate their pathetic loss.

Remember: For every Jew, there’s 125 Muslims. Muslims are not an oppressed minority, they are the oppressive majority and the real colonizers.”

The Mayor of NY City is commemorating the Nakba, when Arab countries lost a war they started with Israel, and the Palestinians rejected every deal for a Two State Solution for the last 78 years.

That's only the real "catastrophe" here. pic.twitter.com/aCTh3O6m4d

— Joel M. Petlin (@Joelmpetlin) May 15, 2026