{"id":92589,"date":"2026-05-17T21:35:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T02:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/?p=92589"},"modified":"2026-05-17T21:35:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T02:35:55","slug":"mamdani-releases-nakba-day-video-gets-angry-reactions-from-jewish-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/mamdani-releases-nakba-day-video-gets-angry-reactions-from-jewish-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani releases \u2018Nakba\u2019 day video, gets angry reactions from Jewish leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>By DEBRA NUSSBAUM COHEN<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div class=\"ArticlePage-dateAndSource\">(JNS.org)&nbsp; \u2013&nbsp;Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, posted a video on Friday of a woman, who says that her family left its home in Jerusalem during Israel\u2019s War of Independence.<\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_92590\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Nabka_image.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92590\" class=\"wp-image-92590 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Nabka_image-300x169.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Nabka_image-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Nabka_image-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Nabka_image.webp 1000w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/169;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92590\" class=\"wp-image-92590 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Nabka_image-300x169.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Nabka_image-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Nabka_image-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Nabka_image.webp 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-92590\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screen capture of a video that Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, released on May 15, 2026, depicting Inea, described as Palestinian and a survivor of the \u201cNakba.\u201d (Screen capture of video from the New York City mayor.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cToday 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,\u201d the mayor&nbsp;<span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NYCMayor\/status\/2055402930677879076\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">stated<\/a><\/span>. \u201cInea is a New Yorker and a Nakba survivor. She shared her story with us\u2014one of home, tradition and memory over generations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the video, which has been viewed nearly 9.5 million times, Inea is seen leafing through faded family photos under a travel poster for \u201cPalestine\u201d hung on her wall in the video, which is reminiscent of Holocaust survivor testimonies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was 9-years-old and it was nighttime, and my father came and told us to get on all fours and go to the staircase to the roof, because there were no windows and bullets had come through the wood shutters,\u201d Inea says in the video. \u201cThe next day, we took what we could carry and went to my uncle Hussein\u2019s house in Nablus,\u201d she adds. \u201cThe Zionists were, you know, coming into Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>David Greenfield, CEO of Met Council, the nation\u2019s largest Jewish poverty-fighting organization, stated that \u201cI\u2019ve been doing this a long time and have never seen this kind of anger from moderate Jewish New York City leaders, who tried working with Mayor Mamdani.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Greenfield, a former member of the New York City Council,&nbsp;<span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NYCGreenfield\/status\/2056020562904752179\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">posted<\/a><\/span>&nbsp;screen captures of responses from a Chabad spokesman, the government releations vice president at UJA-Federation of New York, a Jewish New York state representative and the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council-N.Y.<\/p>\n<p>Greenfield told JNS on Sunday that the video that Mamdani posted \u201chas strained relationships with a lot of us in the leadership, who have tried to work in good faith with the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_92591\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-100days.webp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92591\" class=\"wp-image-92591 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-100days-300x169.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-100days-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-100days-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-100days.webp 1000w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/169;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92591\" class=\"wp-image-92591 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-100days-300x169.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-100days-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-100days-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-100days.webp 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-92591\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani appears live on WNYC\u2019s \u201cMamdani\u2019s First 100 Days: Lessons from La Guardia\u201d in Manhattan, April 20, 2026. Credit: Michael Appleton\/Mayoral Photography Office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cLast week, I sat down for a meeting with the Mayor\u2019s Office to Combat Antisemitism to talk about issues of concern, believing there was an interest in working together in good faith,\u201d he told JNS.<\/p>\n<p>Now Greenfield has doubts that the good faith is reciprocated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have seen that the mayor has been willing to compromise on a lot of issues but if anything, he\u2019s become more strident on this one issue,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is frustrating and disheartening at the same time in month five of a 48-month administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Met Council, like UJA-Federation of New York, relies heavily on city funding to provide many of its social services to poor and marginalized New Yorkers, which includes Jews and others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I have to pick between being a Jewish leader and a nonprofit leader, I will pick being a Jewish leader, and the chips will fall where they may,\u201d Greenfield told JNS.<\/p>\n<p>UJA-Federation posted an uncharacteristically pointed response to Mamdani\u2019s video.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou chose 5:40 p.m. on Friday to post it, as Jewish New Yorkers prepare to light Shabbat candles,\u201d the Federation stated. \u201cWe noticed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) wrote that \u201cNakba\u201d is \u201cArabic for catastrophe\u201d and that \u201cthe only catastrophe here is a mayor of New York who lets antisemitic mobs run wild to terrorize law-abiding Jewish New Yorkers while he spreads anti-Israel propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, stated that \u201cmy mother and her parents fled the Nazis to come to New York City in 1939. My grandfather kept hidden Swiss francs and gold coins in his apartment in case he ever had to flee again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy heart breaks for New York City,\u201d he wrote. \u201cMamdani is a menace. Pro-Hamas and Hezbollah mobs are harassing Jews. Mamdani has empowered them.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_92592\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-Passoverseder.webp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92592\" class=\"wp-image-92592 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-Passoverseder-300x169.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-Passoverseder-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-Passoverseder-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-Passoverseder.webp 1000w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/169;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92592\" class=\"wp-image-92592 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-Passoverseder-300x169.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-Passoverseder-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-Passoverseder-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mamdani-Passoverseder.webp 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-92592\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivers remarks at City Winery Passover seder on March 30, 2026. Credit: Michael Appleton\/Mayoral Photography Office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Some critics of the mayor\u2019s posted noted on social media that the poster on a wall in Inea\u2019s home is actually a 1936 Zionist advertisement encouraging people to move to what would become the modern Jewish state.<\/p>\n<p>The media watchdog HonestReporting said that after Mamdani put out the \u201cpropaganda video,\u201d it was \u201cno surprise that the&nbsp;<i>New York Times<\/i>&nbsp;simply repeats the false narrative without scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause Inea Bushnaq is not a \u2018Nakba survivor,\u2019\u201d it stated. \u201cShe is the descendant of Bosnian Muslims and was not forcibly displaced from her home. But facts don\u2019t matter to the&nbsp;<i>Times<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mamdani, New York City\u2019s first Muslim mayor, is not of Palestinian or Arab descent. He was born in Uganda to an Indo-Ugandan family.<\/p>\n<p>He has not posted a video about any other of New York City\u2019s ethnic communities\u2019 commemorations or observances. (JNS sought comment from the mayor.)<\/p>\n<p>There are about 1 million Jewish New Yorkers in a city of 8.7 million residents, the largest population of Jews anywhere outside of Israel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the obligation of any mayor, regardless of personal views, to try and bring people together. This is clearly divisive,\u201d Greenfield, of Met Council, told JNS. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously misinformation as well that really does concern the leaders of the community. When you put out disinformation like this it does tend to take people who are otherwise on the fence and push them toward an extremist view.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe reality is that for most non-Jewish New Yorkers, they are not able to separate between Israel and Jews,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to have a negative impact on how people treat and work with the Jewish community.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Mamdani%20releases%20%E2%80%98Nakba%E2%80%99%20day%20video%2C%20gets%20angry%20reactions%20from%20Jewish%20leaders\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":92590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[8790,8795,13105,8788,14708],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92593,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92589\/revisions\/92593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}