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EXCLUSIVE: Inna Vernikov, a New York City Republican councilwoman, told Fox News Digital that voters in her heavily Jewish district are “petrified” about the prospect of socialist Zohran Mamdani becoming the city’s next mayor.
“This is a guy who wants to globalize the intifada,” Vernikov told Fox News Digital. “We’ve never seen anything close to this in New York City. We have the largest Jewish population in America, and I’ll tell you Jews are telling me they’re going to run away from New York City, and Jews have contributed a lot to the city and to this country, and the idea that they are now afraid to live here it’s unacceptable and unprecedented really, this has never happened here.”
Mamdani has been widely criticized for his anti-Israel positions dating back to his college days, when he founded his school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter. In recent weeks, Mamdani has been criticized over a perceived reticence to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which he now says he will not use and will discourage others from doing.
Mamdani’s father, Mahmood, has also faced scrutiny over his past writings and comments, which included a social media post celebrating a potential “third intifadah against settler colonialism” in Israel.
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New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov. (Getty/Fox News Digital)
“The intifada is a call for violence, we’ve seen what happened during two intifadas where people were murdered, innocent people lost their lives,” Vernikov said, adding that “there’s a lot of fear in the Jewish community if this guy becomes mayor.”
Vernikov, who is Jewish, told Fox News Digital people she has spoken to in her district are “petrified” of Mamdani becoming mayor.
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New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani briefly speaks with reporters as he leaves the Dirksen Senate Office Building on July 16, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (hoto by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Numerous Jewish groups have come out in staunch opposition against Mamdani’s candidacy. Brooke Goldstein, a human rights attorney, told Fox News Digital earlier this month that “Zohran Mamdani has built his political brand on the same radical, hate-filled and anti-American ideology his father, Mahmood Mamdani, has spent decades promoting—one that demonizes Jewish people and legitimizes anti-democratic violence.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s campaign for comment.
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Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks in the New York City Democratic Mayoral Primary Debate at NBC Studios on June 4, 2025. (Yuki Iwamura-Pool/Getty Images)
Vernikov took issue with Democrats who have started to endorse Mamdani, which experts say could cause problems for the Democratic Party if he wins in November, and criticized their excuse that “he’s the Democratic nominee.”
“I’m curious, I have a question,” Vernikov told Fox News Digital. “If this Democratic nominee would be like a KKK member or would call for annihilation of the black community, would they still you know, come behind him as hard as they are now, and I would think that the answer would be no, but when it comes to the Jews, that’s okay.”
“So it’s really hypocritical, unacceptable, and disgusting, and they’ve been endorsing him one by one. While Republicans are fighting antisemitism on behalf of Jewish Americans every day, the Democrats are supporting an antisemite.”
