New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is refusing to back away from his description of AIPAC as “monsters,” defending the remarks even as Jewish leaders accused him of using dehumanizing and antisemitic rhetoric.

Speaking to reporters Monday, Mamdani said his comments were directed at the pro-Israel lobbying organization and its support for Israel’s military campaign against Hamas.

“We’re talking about a status quo where children are being killed on a daily basis,” Mamdani said, referring to the reported death of Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Washah. The IDF has identified Washah as a Hamas operative, noting that multiple individuals presented as journalists in Gaza have later been found to be members of terrorist organizations.

“When I am speaking about AIPAC, I’m speaking about an organization that has been supportive of the status quo, that has fought any attempt to actually deliver safety to people, not just in Palestine, but frankly, through much of the region,” Mamdani said. “It is a status quo for immorality. It is one that I will not accept.”

“It is important that when we ask ourselves how such death and destruction is happening overseas, we also name those who allow it to take place,” he added.

The controversy stems from remarks Mamdani made during a rally last Thursday, when he declared, “The monsters that we are up against, they take many different forms,” before singling out AIPAC.

He went on to describe the organization as one “for whom the only thing more frightening than democracy being allowed to run its course is an end to genocide and Netanyahu’s wars.”

Mamdani also accused AIPAC of moving “millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal, to preserve their power so that they can turn us against one another instead of our leaders turning towards the moral change we all know to be necessary.”

His comments drew swift condemnation from Jewish organizations.

American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch responded directly to the mayor, saying, “When you call people monsters, you’re not debating ideas, you’re dehumanizing the people you disagree with.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)