New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is standing by a controversial Nakba Day video released by City Hall, even as major Jewish organizations across the country intensify criticism of the mayor over the post.

The video, published Friday by Mamdani’s administration, featured a woman identified as a “Nakba survivor” describing the “catastrophe” tied to Israel’s founding and saying it “continues to this day.”

“Nakba,” the Arabic word for “catastrophe,” is used to describe the flight and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Arabs during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. Critics of the Nakba narrative argue that it is frequently tied to demands for a so-called “right of return” that would effectively end Israel’s status as a Jewish state.

Jewish leaders in New York had already blasted the video for portraying Israel’s founding in a one-sided manner, warning that such rhetoric contributes to hostility and threats targeting Jews. On Monday, prominent national Jewish organizations added their voices to the backlash.

“In his post sharing a one-sided video about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the mayor of New York City fueled real world harm,” the American Jewish Committee says. “At a time when Jews are being attacked in the streets of New York and worldwide because of antizionist narratives, amplifying misleading content doesn’t just distort public understanding, it puts the Jewish community at further risk.”

The controversy reflects growing concern within the pro-Israel American Jewish community that anti-Zionist rhetoric has crossed from political expression into outright discrimination and incitement against Jews.

The Anti-Defamation League also sharply criticized the mayor, calling the video “propaganda.”

“Releasing it right before Shabbat isn’t leadership. It’s provocation. Especially when Nakba Day ‘commemorations’ in this city featured open support for US-designated terror organizations, veneration of their leaders, and calls for Israel’s destruction. New Yorkers deserve a mayor with the moral clarity to call that out,” the ADL says.

Demonstrations held in New York City for Nakba Day on Friday and Saturday included protesters waving Hezbollah and Hamas flags, including from a truck carrying children.

Additional footage circulating online from the Pal-Awda Bay Ridge “Nakba Day 78” protest appeared to show children being led in chants while, directly behind them, a flag bearing the emblem of Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades was visible.

Despite the uproar, Mamdani defended the video during a Monday press conference.

“I was proud to commemorate Nakba Day, which is an annual day on May 15th that commemorates the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from 1947 to 1945 during the creation of the State of Israel and for the year that followed,” Mamdani says, incorrectly stating the timeline surrounding Israel’s founding.

“We wanted to ensure that the focus of this is just to hear from a New Yorker herself, on her own memories, of what it means to be expelled, what her life has been like, and she has found home in New York City,” Mamdani says.

The mayor also revealed that he had originally intended to appear in the video personally, but said he became ill and did not want to “create any kind of complications” for the woman featured in the clip.

Mamdani was also questioned about the decision by several major Jewish organizations to boycott an event he is hosting Monday night in honor of American Jewish Heritage Month and Shavuot.

“My message to Jewish leaders across this city is that my door is always open,” he says.