Khader El-Yateem: The Man Who 'Transformed' Zohran Mamdani
Khader El-Yateem: The Man Who 'Transformed' Zohran Mamdani
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Zohran Mamdani's Political Inspiration
Who kick-started Zohran Mamdani’s political ambitions? Who, in Mamdani’s words, “transformed” his life? Mamdani says it was Khader El-Yateem, a Palestinian Lutheran pastor who is virulently antisemitic, anti-Israel and an ardent socialist.
Mamdani met El Yateem in 2017, when he volunteered for the pastor’s campaign for the New York City Council. El-Yateem centered his race around his support for the BDS movement. Although El-Yateen lost, the experience was a pivotal moment for Mamdani.
“My life was transformed by Khader El-Yateem,” Mamdani says. “He gave me a sense of belonging in a city that I had always loved, but one in which I had not known if my politics had a clear place.”
In another interview, Mamdani explained further, “[While working for Khader El-Yateem], I came into contact with a political movement that understood Palestine as being a central part of the struggle, which is something that I had often struggled with … all of these politicians I had admired … found every way to not address Palestinians when it came to their seemingly universal struggles.”
“Father K … showed me,” says Mamdani, ”that my politics internationally and locally could (co)exist in the context of local politics.”
Who is Khader El-Yateem?
Who is Khader El-Yateem, the man Mamdani credits with transforming his life?
El-Yateem has a history of antisemitic statements and support for terrorism. He justified the October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians, while mocking and denying many of the atrocities of the attack, including the rape and mutilation of women and children and the participation of UNRWA workers in the slaughter.
October 7th Denial
When hostages were rescued, he rued the lack of a ceasefire (assuring the survival of Hamas) while dismissing the horrors of their captivity.
Blood Libels
Antisemitic Conspiracies
Fundraising Scandal
In 2017, the same year Mamdani became star-struck with El-Yateem, the pastor was caught up in a scandal. During the campaign, El-Yateem claimed he helped open and raise $100,000 for The Resource Training Center, a nonprofit substance abuse counseling and treatment center run by Donna Mae DePola.
However, despite a fund raiser at the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge that raised the money for the center, DePola said she never saw any of the money and risked having to close the facility as a result of the broken promises made by El-Yateem and his associates.