Latest news with #AriStachel
Fox News
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Actor who lost family members to intifada urges Mamdani to help NYC Jews feel safe
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.
Fox News
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Actor says Mamdani not doing enough to address antisemitism, feels 'uncomfortable' admitting he's Jewish
Arab-Jewish stage actor Ari'el Stachel told MSNBC on Monday that Democratic New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani hasn't done enough to push back on antisemitism from his base and in the city. As an Arab Jew with an Israeli father, Stachel told MSNBC host Katy Tur that he now feels "uncomfortable" revealing his ethnicity in public. Though he agreed with Tur that Mamdani had not explicitly condoned antisemitism, Stachel believes that the democratic socialist candidate hasn't properly condemned it yet. "I think it hasn't been enough, because I think that there's a sense that there are people in his base who really are antisemitic," Stachel said. "And I think that there's been a sense that he hasn't been as vehemently denouncing their statements." The Tony award-winning actor described a recent example of feeling scared to reveal his own background to a Palestinian woman at a bodega. "Antisemitism has become so broad right now that if I'm the son of an Israeli father who is the son of a Yemeni immigrant, I still become a target in some ways," he said. Despite this, Stachel said he was open to working with Mamdani to create a coalition made up of multicultural Jews to help push back on antisemitism. His comments came after he made an Instagram video last month, where he urged Mamdani to call out antisemitism specifically and denounce it. "What's frightening is this, in some circles, antisemitism isn't recognized as hate," Stachel said in the video. "It's framed as justice. Attacks against Jews aren't condemned. They are celebrated, seen as a righteous response to a government miles away, which makes it all the more dangerous. It's disguised as virtue. And I know you don't want to lead a city where people feel like that." He continued, "So I have a request: name antisemitism clearly. Not in footnotes, not with caveats, not lumped in with the many other very valid and real hate crimes in our city, but named as its own pain and its own danger. And I want you to have the courage to denounce explicitly any of your supporters who are blatantly antisemitic, because we cannot live in a New York that is like that." Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani's campaign for comment. Mamdani has faced accusations of antisemitism throughout his campaign. In several instances, he refused to denounce the phrase "globalize the intifada" despite its violent connotations against Israelis and Jews worldwide. He has also refused to recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and has instead argued it had a right to exist "as a state with equal rights."
