Overview
- A newly circulated video shows Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani in a Nov. 16, 2002 Hampshire College lecture comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa and describing Holocaust survivors as “yesterday’s victims turned today’s perpetrators.”
- In the talk, he invoked Adolf Hitler and argued that European powers decried Nazism while overlooking colonial violence, saying, “The Holocaust was the imperial chickens come home.”
- Canary Mission says it uncovered the recording and labeled Mamdani “one of the most antisemitic voices in academia,” crediting the mayor‑elect’s prominence for bringing attention to the clip.
- The resurfacing revives debate over the line between academic critique of Israel and antisemitism during a period of heightened tensions and reported increases in antisemitic incidents.
- Coverage links the episode to Zohran Mamdani’s past positions, including support for BDS, calling Israel an apartheid state, and saying he would seek to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited New York; reporters sought comment from Mahmood and Zohran Mamdani.