Actor who lost family members to intifada urges Mamdani to help NYC Jews feel safe

Fox News

5 days ago

Arab-Jewish stage actor Ari'el Stachel urged New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to lean into the Jewish community and build coalitions to combat rising antisemitism, weeks after warning that, too often, hate is disguised as a virtue.
"My encouragement to him is to continue to lean into the Jewish community and collaborate, which is why I made the video I made," Stachel told Fox News on Tuesday.
His comments referenced an Instagram video he addressed to Mamdani last month. Its content was laced with concerns over antisemitism and urged the Democratic socialist to call out antisemitism specifically and denounce it.
"I said, 'Listen, I relate to you. I'm a brown man who experienced Islamophobia my whole life, and now I'm experiencing antisemitism in a really scary way, and I want you to prioritize a coalition that makes it so that Jews will feel safe in this city if he becomes the mayor," he continued.
He also extended an olive branch to Mamdani on Tuesday, telling co-hosts Bill Hemmer and Gillian Turner that he would be the "first person" to join him in fighting for unity if he manages to defeat incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and Republican challenger Curtis Sliwa in November.
"My main message is that I'm here to fight for unity. I'm willing to work alongside him if he becomes the mayor…" he said.
"For me, I've lived through hate my entire life. I experienced Islamophobia for my whole life. After 9/11, my dad was called Osama bin Laden, and so I lived through periods where individuals are targeted because of how they look, and I say 'no' to all of that, and I said 'no' to the antisemitism that is really frightening all over the streets of New York City right now."
Fox News Digital previously reached out to the Mamdani campaign regarding Stachel's criticisms but received no response.
While reluctant to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada" during an interview with NBC's Kristen Welker last month, The New York Times recently reported that Mamdani, who has been highly critical of the state of Israel, told business leaders in the Big Apple that he would not use the phrase and that he would "discourage" others from doing so.
Many interpret the phrase as a call for violence against Jewish people.
Stachel, who shared that he lost family members to the intifada, said he feels "encouraged" to see Mamdani appear to denounce the phrase at last.
"I want to protect against hate speech against any group, so for me, I am encouraged by the fact that he did denounce 'globalize the intifada,' – that was a situation that happened in Israel that killed members of my family, so I take it very personally," he said.