NYC mayoral candidate Mamdani reveals his true imperialist colours

Zohran Mamdani, the front-running Mayoral candidate in New York City, has caused uproar on social media over a statement he made on October 7.

My statement on the two year anniversary of October 7, 2023. pic.twitter.com/JlsXUeAeYd

— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) October 7, 2025

Mamdani is currently ahead in the polls by 18 points, and his position on issues such as taxing the rich has won him popularity among New Yorkers.

Previously, Mamdani has expressed anti-Israel views and called for defunding the police. However, he claims to have softened his view on both.

That said, his statement on 7 October 2025 – the two-year anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel- has stirred massive controversy online.

Mamdani managed to frame Palestinian resistance to 80 years of brutal Israeli occupation as equivalent to those 80 years of Israeli violence.

I know he and his team – and even many of his supporters – believe this was the best possible statement he could have made, one that they believe centers the devastation inflicted on Palestinians since Oct 7.

But the reality is that to frame an instance of Palestinian violence,… https://t.co/kgtokid2U7

— Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed) October 7, 2025

I don’t like to engage in liberal gotchas, but imagine comparing 1 event with 100 years of systematic ethnic-cleansing campaign. https://t.co/dXoGR9CRJW

— Raja Abdulhaq (@Raja48) October 7, 2025

Justifying violence against Palestinians

He has reinforced the same frameworks that politicians across the world have been using to justify further violence against Palestinians for the past two years.

Zohran’s latest statement is disgraceful. It hides behind the language of morality while reinforcing the same frameworks that dehumanize Palestinians.

He begins by calling October 7 a “horrific war crime,” centering Israeli suffering as the starting point of the story. That… https://t.co/5WdaYtnd83

— Nerdeen Kiswani (@NerdeenKiswani) October 7, 2025

He seemingly attempted to condemn Israel’s crimes, but in reality, he completely distorted the facts.

Resistance is not a “horrific war crime,” Hamas did not kill “1,100 Israelis” on October 7, and occupation soldiers aren’t “hostages.” These facts matter. @ZohranKMamdani can’t balance out these distortions and lies by also condemning “Israel’s” crimes. He knows this but he’s… https://t.co/AyrTH2bvQC

— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) October 7, 2025

Hannibal directive

Israel’s use of the Hannibal directive has been widely covered by the media. Yet still, Mamdani claimed Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis. This has been proven to be a fabrication.

According to Electronic Intifada, Israeli implementation of the Hannibal Directive was official, almost immediate, and deliberate.

Additionally, it took place in the knowledge of the risk of “endangerment or harming of the lives of civilians in the region, including the captives themselves”.

Mamdani’s attempts to ‘both sides’ a literal live-streamed genocide appear to have alienated a large proportion of his supporters.

what the Democrats still don’t understand is there is no longer a centrist position. you cannot both sides a fucking genocide and expect anyone to take you seriously https://t.co/u0CucpnkIK

— Bobby the Terrible (@secondbyfarce) October 7, 2025

the stupidest thing about centrist takes is that you just end up pissing off both sides and pleasing no one. the left think you’re a sellout and the right think you’re hamas, how does that benefit you? its better to stand on business https://t.co/JoSLlHoFxH

— hole respecter (@bigsnugga) October 7, 2025

on zohran: acknowledging that it’s a genocide but then continuing to condemn the resistance is actually worse and more evil than simple genocide denial.

— Em Cohen gazafunds.com (@EmCohen_) October 7, 2025

Even so, Zionists have still attacked Mamdani for the same statement. His pathetic attempts to appease the right have blown up in his face. He managed to piss everyone off.

The Zionists on CNN are unanimously attacking Zohran Mamdani for his October 7th statements

So not only was Mamdani factually wrong and cowardly but he’s still getting attacked by the establishment for it

He condemned the Palestinian resistance and pissed off the entire left,…

— Revolutionary Blackout🥋 (@SocialistMMA) October 8, 2025

Erasure

Zohran also managed to write a whole statement without once mentioning Palestine or Palestinians.

Did he forget how to spell it?

He never once said Palestinians or Palestine. Not once. https://t.co/2G3AcnOe1Y

— Hussein (@EyesOnSouth1) October 7, 2025

ignoring the obvious ignorance of pretending the genocide was an aftermath of oct 7th & the obvious undercount on the death toll it really amazes me that these type of statements still manage to tiptoe around mentioning Palestinians or Palestine directly https://t.co/9ZsSmkn9Ca

— aya (@chrrypicked) October 7, 2025

People living under occupation have a right to resistance – by any means necessary.

Imagine starting off a commemoration of the Armenian genocide with denouncing the Van uprising

Or commemorating the Holocaust with denouncing Herschel Grynszpan

Or the Trail of Tears, condemning Native Americans who kidnapped settlers https://t.co/CXaLMwVvRZ

— Aidan Simardone (@AidanSimardone) October 7, 2025

Resisting the coloniser

This week, Mamdani managed to further distance himself from the far-left by attacking both Cuba and Venezuela. He claimed the leaders of both countries were ‘dictators’.

Democratic New York Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has once again gone out of his way to distance himself from the far-left by attacking Cuba and Venezuela. “I want to be clear about my position. I believe both Nicolás Maduro and Miguel Díaz-Canel are dictators. Their… pic.twitter.com/m7qOajV3hb

— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) October 7, 2025

As the Canary previously reported, US military forces attacked two more Venezuelan vessels in international waters near the South American nation on 3 and 4 October. This brings the total number of similar strikes to four, with at least 21 people dead. This is a clear violation of international law.

‘Democratic socialist’

Mamdani’s campaign has been based on his socialist values. But now, he seems to have taken a cop out.

I usually like to ignore the internal rants of US politicians but if you’re posing as a socialist and calling for the overthrow of revolutionary states that have actually transformed the economic conditions then you it’s a cop out. You’re parroting an imperialist line against… https://t.co/zXucGFQjjc

— Aidrean Ó Gallchobhair 🇮🇪 (@adriang86518036) October 8, 2025

This is also the same Cuba that repeated chest-beating US administrations have imposed an imperialistic embargo on for the past 65 years after Fidel Castro defeated US-backed tyrant Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship. The long-term economic sanctions have decimated the Cuban economy –

Mamdani is standing to be a politician in a country that is arguably the current most brutal imperial power. Where’s the critical thinking?

How the most savage imperial power in recent times gets to occupy the moral high ground and call victims of its oppression “dictators” or “undemocratic” is a serious indictment on critical thinking. https://t.co/RN3preOeYc

— Charles N. Ngaruiya (@cnngaruiya) October 8, 2025

He’s shown that he isn’t truly far-left.

Hot take, but if supporting decolonial movements and supporting the right of the dispossessed to violently oppose and resist their colonizer is too “radical left” for you, then you do not and have not ever belonged to the left; push comes to shove, you are an imperialist at heart https://t.co/GPcOxSkYHV

— mischa ☭ (@redmischa) October 7, 2025

But if you want to talk about dictatorships.

What makes it worse is that he won’t dare call a pro-US (real) dictatorship a dictatorship. https://t.co/Q7fgqR3Fgz

— asad abukhalil أسعد أبو خليل (@asadabukhalil) October 7, 2025

Mamdami is running on a democratic socialist platform, yet in recent days, he has shown that deep down, his values are much the same as those of the imperialist leaders currently governing the US. His attempts not to piss off the pro-Israel lobby have backfired, and it now seems that there is no one he hasn’t pissed off.

Feature image via Zohran Mamdani for NYC/YouTube