City College of New York’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter remains a registered campus group following its participation in last week’s pro-Hamas protest in Queens that caused nearby schools and a synagogue to close early.  

The demonstration was planned by a group called the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation [PAL]-Awda, protesting an event held by CapitIL, a Jerusalem-based real estate agency, at a Queens synagogue. The group called the meeting an “illegal event” promoting “blatant land theft and dispossession” in a social media post promoting the protest. 

CCNY SJP reposted PAL-Awda’s fliers promoting the demonstration and shared videos on its Instagram story of its members participating in the protest. A spokesperson for CCNY did not respond to multiple inquiries from Jewish Insider following the protest regarding what, if any, disciplinary action would be taken.   

The protest was also promoted by Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of student groups that is no longer recognized by Columbia University. Dozens of keffiyeh-clad demonstrators gathered near the synagogue, Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, and chanted, “We support Hamas here,” “There is only one solution, intifada revolution,” “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the IDF” for more than two hours while banging on drums in the residential area in the heavily Jewish neighborhood. One protester held a ripped Israeli flag that was painted red to resemble blood. 

The pro-Hamas language used by demonstrators was condemned by a range of New York politicians, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former City Comptroller Brad Lander, both of whom have been vocally critical of Israel. 

CCNY was already facing scrutiny following a university-sponsored interfaith event in November during which a Muslim spiritual leader delivered an antisemitic tirade against a CUNY Hillel director. The U.S. Department of Justice opened an ongoing investigation into the interfaith event shortly after it occurred.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was silent regarding an anti-Israel protest in Queens on Thursday that caused nearby schools and a synagogue to close early in anticipation of the demonstration where protesters chanted “We support Hamas.”

The radical group behind the protest, called Palestinian Assembly for Liberation [PAL]-Awda, wrote on social media Thursday afternoon that it would gather in the evening outside of an event held by CapitIL, a Jerusalem-based real estate agency, at the Modern Orthodox synagogue Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills. The post called it an “illegal event” promoting “blatant land theft and dispossession.”

Dozens of masked, keffiyeh-clad demonstrators gathered near the synagogue and chanted, “We support Hamas here,” “There is only one solution, intifada revolution,” “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the IDF” for more than two hours while banging on drums in the residential area in Queens’ heavily Jewish neighborhood of Kew Gardens Hills. One protester held a ripped Israeli flag that was painted red to resemble blood. The protest was also promoted by Columbia University Apartheid Divest. 

A heavy NYPD presence monitored the demonstration and set up a barrier keeping protesters about 300 feet from the synagogue, and away from a counterprotest happening across the street. 

The demonstration marked the first major test Mamdani has faced in protecting the city’s Jewish community since he was inaugurated last week. The same group led a protest in November outside of Park East Synagogue, where they gathered near the entrance, as it hosted a Nefesh B’Nefesh event providing information on immigration to Israel. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch later called the November protest “turmoil,” while Mamdani’s office said the event was promoting “activities in violation of international law,” a statement his spokesperson would later revise. 

Mamdani made no public statement regarding the protest on Thursday and his spokesperson did not respond to multiple inquiries from Jewish Insider, including one asking whether the mayor’s team had discouraged demonstrators from protesting and another asking if he condemned any of the slogans chanted.

After the announcement of the protest location, the synagogue canceled prayer services and two nearby schools, Yeshiva of Central Queens and PS 165, announced early closures. Democratic state Assemblymember Sam Berger, who represents the area, told JI that local principals, staff and parents were “very concerned.” The surrounding area was “completely upended,” he said.

“For our @NYCMayor who has said he ‘will always stand steadfast with our Jewish neighbors,’ I am calling on [Mamdani] for an immediate condemnation of this demonstration,” Berger wrote on X before the event. 

The National Jewish Advocacy Center, a Jewish legal advocacy group, sent a letter earlier Thursday to Mamdani noting that “penal Law §240.20 squarely prohibits disorderly conduct that causes or recklessly risks public alarm — including masked intimidation. These laws must be enforced equally,” the group wrote. 

Berger told JI during the protest that he was “grateful to the NYPD for the resources they deployed to keep order, but fielding dozens of calls from concerned parents and watching chaos descend on a peaceful community of working class New Yorkers was deplorable.”

“There is a time and a place to protest foreign policy and that is not in the middle of a residential neighborhood where families are simply trying to live their lives,” the assemblymember said. 

PAL-Awda had previously planned a protest outside a Nefesh B’Nefesh event in Manhattan on Wednesday night. Less than an hour before the event began, the group announced that the demonstration was canceled, without providing a reason. 

A few hours before Thursday evening’s demonstration was scheduled to begin, the group posted a series of instructions for participants including “mask up” and “bring Palestinian flags and signs.” 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Tuesday she plans to implement a policy establishing “safety zones” around houses of worship. Protesters on Thursday remained further from the synagogue than the proposed legislation’s required 25-foot buffer zone. 

In his campaign for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, a far-left Queens state assemblyman polling in second place behind former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has indicated he would not visit Israel if he is elected, saying he does not believe that such a trip is necessary “to stand up for Jewish New Yorkers.”

“I believe that to stand up for Jewish New Yorkers means that you actually meet Jewish New Yorkers wherever they may be, be it at their synagogues and temples or their homes or on the subway platform or at a park, wherever it may be,” Mamdani, a fierce critic of Israel, reiterated in comments at a mayoral forum hosted by several progressive Jewish groups on Sunday night.

By contrast, in a 2020 Zoom discussion with the Adalah Justice Project, a pro-Palestinian advocacy group, Mamdani said he was planning to organize a trip to the Palestinian territories, suggesting that he would make an exception for an issue he has upheld as one of his top causes during his tenure in Albany.

“Once COVID is over, I am planning on finding a way to coordinate a trip with other legislators to Palestine,” Mamdani said at the time. “We’ll figure that one out. I’ll probably get to the border and get turned away, but at the very least I’m going to organize it and go myself.”

It is unclear if Mamdani organized such a trip. His campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

The comments, however, broadly underscore how Mamdani’s past remarks on the Israel-Palestinian conflict have become a source of growing tension as he confronts basic questions on the issue during his mayoral campaign. 

Several of Mamdani’s Democratic opponents in the June 24 primary have said they would visit Israel if elected — in keeping with a long-standing tradition for New York City mayors who represent the largest Jewish community outside of Israel. Cuomo, who is leading the primary, has vowed it would be his first trip abroad, as have other candidates.

Mamdani, for his part, has suggested he would not visit any foreign country as mayor, saying he would instead “stay in New York City,” as he confirmed at the first mayoral debate last week. “My plans are to address New Yorkers across the five boroughs and focus on that,” he said.

During the mayoral forum on Sunday evening, he also raised doubts about whether he would be able to enter Israel at all, citing Israeli legislation barring non-citizen backers of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement from visiting the Jewish state.

Despite his long-standing support for BDS, Mamdani, who has faced scrutiny for declining to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, did not provide a direct answer about whether he would continue to endorse the movement as mayor when asked at the forum, saying only that he would seek to “bring New York City back into” compliance with international law.

“I think ultimately, the focus of our mayor should be on the issues of New York City at hand,” he insisted, even as he had argued in the Zoom conversation five years ago that BDS is a salient “local” issue and said that mayoral candidates should be pressured to join the movement to boycott Israel.

Elsewhere in that discussion, Mamdani voiced hostility to resolutions in the state Legislature to “disavow BDS” or “stand in solidarity with Israel,” which he dismissed as promoting Israeli interests. 

“They use all of these hasbara propaganda talking points in the resolutions,” Mamdani said, using the Hebrew word for Israeli public diplomacy. “That is one place to fight is to stop such resolutions from being passed, to pass different kinds of resolutions.”

Mamdani has faced scrutiny for not signing on to several resolutions commemorating the Holocaust and honoring Israel during his tenure in office. He has defended his decision as consistent with what he now describes as a general policy against joining any such measures.

“In January, I told my Assembly staff not to co-sponsor any resolutions that were emailed to our office,” Mamdani said in a video last month. “It had nothing to do with the content of the resolution. But I understand this has caused pain and confusion for many.”

He said he had “voted every year for the Holocaust Remembrance Day Resolution, including this year, to honor the more than 6 million Jewish people murdered by the Nazis.”

An influential coalition of Orthodox Jewish leaders in Far Rockaway, Queens, is endorsing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for mayor of New York City, Jewish Insider has learned, the first official demonstration of support from a major Orthodox group in the race.

In a lengthy statement first shared with JI on Wednesday night, leaders of the Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance wrote that the “Jewish community in New York — particularly the frum community — faces a political crisis of historic proportions,” and urged voters to move past their lingering resentment over Cuomo’s COVID policies, which community members recall as discriminatory. 

“We still feel the pain of the unfair red zones imposed by Cuomo in 2020, which targeted our communities and restricted our way of life with heavy-handed measures,” the leaders acknowledged. “That wound lingers, a reminder of how quickly our freedoms can be curtailed. Yet, despite this pain, we must look forward and consider our future as Jews in New York City, where new threats loom larger than past grievances.”

The leaders, who represent a key voting bloc in Queens, suggested their support for Cuomo was motivated almost singularly by concerns with his top rival, Zohran Mandani, a Queens state assemblyman whose fierce opposition to Israel and close alliance with the Democratic Socialists of America have raised alarms in the Jewish community.

“If Zohran Mamdani and the movement behind him succeed, we risk losing everything we’ve built,” they write. “This isn’t a mere policy disagreement or politics as usual. Mamdani and his allies, backed by the DSA, have made their intentions clear: they aim to defund our yeshivas, strip our neighborhoods of police protection, and vilify support for Israel as a disqualifying offense. These aren’t empty threats. They’re drafting laws, redirecting budgets, and winning elections — all while projecting a facade of goodwill.”

The alliance members who signed the statement include Elkanah Adelman, Richard Altabe, Shalom Becker, Boruch Ber Bender, Rabbi Zvi Bloom, Jack Brach, Mordechai Zvi Dicker, Ruchie Dunn, Joel Kaplan, Moshe Lazar, Moishe Mishkowitz, Chaim Rapfogel, Baruch Rothman and Aaron Zupnick, according to the announcement.

“Cuomo is no tzaddik, and no one claims he is,” they write. “But we’re not choosing a rebbe — we’re choosing a shield. If we don’t seize the shield before us, we’ll be left utterly defenseless. The reality is stark: in the voting booth, only two candidates can win — Andrew Cuomo or Zohran Mamdani. No one else is close.”

Their new endorsement comes as Cuomo has sought to mend relationships in the Orthodox community that had soured during the COVID pandemic. As polling has shown a tightening race against Mandani, such support could prove crucial, promising to turn out thousands of votes.

In the coming days, Cuomo is also expected to win further endorsements from major Hasidic sects in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Borough Park, according to people familiar with the matter.

“Choosing not to vote for Cuomo isn’t neutrality — it’s handing Mamdani a victory,” the Queens leaders said in their own new endorsement. “That’s a risk our community cannot take. This moment demands action. If we fail to resist this radical, anti-Torah movement, we won’t be debating policies in ten years — we’ll be debating whether we can still live here at all. We cannot stay silent. We cannot stay home. Not now.”

“This isn’t about Cuomo,” they conclude. “It’s about us.”