Zohran Mamdani, a leading Democratic candidate in New York City’s June mayoral primary, declined to say whether he believes Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state, when pressed to confirm his view during a town hall on Thursday night hosted by the UJA-Federation of New York in Manhattan.

“I believe Israel has a right to exist and it has a right to exist also with equal rights for all,” Mamdani said in his carefully worded response to a question posed by Jewish Insider’s editor-in-chief, Josh Kraushaar, who co-moderated the event. 

Despite some initial resistance to addressing such questions earlier in his campaign, Mamdani, a state assemblyman in Queens and a fierce critic of Israel, has in recent weeks acknowledged Israel has a right to exist. But his remarks on the matter have never recognized a Jewish state, an ambiguity he was forced to confront explicitly at the forum — where he notably avoided providing a direct answer to the question.

Many Jewish community members have expressed concerns about Mamdani, who is currently polling in second behind former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and his outspoken opposition to Israel, including support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign targeting the Jewish state.

While some critics have dismissed BDS as antisemitic, he defended the movement as an effective tool to push Israel into “compliance with international law” that he has accused the country of violating before and after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks.

Mamdani, who has frequently alleged that Israel is committing genocide amid its ongoing war in Gaza — an argument he did not raise on Thursday night — also defended his decision last month to join the show of an antisemitic influencer, Hasan Piker, who has fueled controversy for justifying Hamas’ attacks, even as he has forcefully denied some of the group’s atrocities.

Asked if he regretted his appearance on the show in light of the shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington on Wednesday, which he denounced at the beginning of his remarks, Mamdani refused to criticize Piker’s past comments, insisting his own “words speak for themselves.”

“I made very clear where I stood,” Mamdani said of his interview with Piker. “I think this is something that I have sought to embody throughout my career as a consistency — and I think that my actions, my words, even in that interview, spoke for themselves. But it is always helpful to hear feedback as to what I have said and how I’ve engaged.”

During the forum, which also featured Cuomo and other candidates vying for the Democratic nomination, Mamdani told the crowd he recognized “that there is no doubt disagreement at the heart of many of these questions.”

“What I strive to show is that it’s a disagreement still based on a shared sense of humanity,” he said, “not a disagreement that is based on the bigotry that is often characterized of these positions.”