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Mahmood Mamdani
Mahmood Mamdani has called for the “dismantlement” of the state of Israel, compared Israelis to Nazis and spread hatred of Israel and Zionism.
Mamdani also spoke at and participated in the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in April 2024.
As of April 2021, Mamdani was the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University (Columbia). He was also a Professor of Anthropology, Political Science and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) at Columbia.
Mamdani is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and promoted BDS initiatives at Columbia in 2002, 2009 and 2016.
In 2009, Mamdani was an activist with the Columbia Palestine Forum, whose website described the Forum as “a collective of Columbia University students and supporters, organizing together in our campus and communities to support the rights of Palestinians to education and self-determination.”
In 2011, Columbia University hosted the first National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) conference. At the conference, SJP adopted “points of unity,” including “ending Israel’s occupation” and calling for the “right of return.” Columbia professors Rashid Khalidi gave the opening remarks and Mahmood Mamdani delivered the keynote address.
Mamdani also endorsed a 2016 BDS campaign launched by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a coalition of SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) that promotes BDS at Columbia.
As of April 2021, Mamdani was a Director and Professor at the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR) in Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, since 2010. He was appointed Chancellor of Kampala International University (KIU) in Uganda in 2020.
Mamdani was a professor at the University of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania from 1973 to 1979, a professor at Makerere University in Uganda from 1980 to 1993 and a professor at the University of Cape Town from 1996 to 1999.
In May 2020, Mahmood was appointed a member of the Advisory Board of the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF).
Mamdani received a Ph.D. from Harvard University (Harvard) in 1974, a master’s degree in Political Science from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (The Fletcher School) in 1968 and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1967.
As of June 2025, The Guardian reported that Mahmood Mamdani was the father of Zohran Mamdani, who is running for mayor of NYC before his primary on June 24, 2025.
Mahmood Mamdani’s Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia), Call for the Dismantlement of the State of Israel and Hatred of Israel
On December 2, 2014, Mamdani was a featured speaker alongside BDS founder Omar Barghouti at an event hosted by Columbia’s Center for Palestine Studies (CPS) titled:“Palestine's South Africa Moment? The Boycott Divestment Sanctions Movement.” The event also featured anti-Israel professors Neferti Tadiar, Katherine Franke and Nadia Abu El-Haj.
At the event, Madmani’s argued [00:06:22] that “The Palestinian challenge is to persuade the Jewish population of Israel that, just as in South Africa, the long term security of a Jewish homeland in historic Palestine requires the dismantling of the Jewish State… Jews can have a homeland in historic Palestine, but not a state.”
In an interview posted to YouTube on April 14, 2021, Mamdani said [00:24:50] when discussing Israel: “You see, if we want to maintain cultural diversity [in Israel] and if want to have a citizenship that makes no distinction between majority and minority, none whatsoever, then we have to think of another form of the state.”
In a March 23, 2021 Jadaliyya interview Mamdani said: “The de-Nazification project ended up completing the Nazi political project, by creating a Germany without Jews and laying the groundwork for an Israel without Palestinians. This is the two-state solution that Israel tries to complete today, with the shift from Israel as a Jewish and democratic state to Israel as a Jewish state.”
In a video “conversation” with fellow Columbia professor Gil Anidjar, posted to YouTube on January 18, 2021, Mamdani said [00:18:08] that the “Nuremberg trials opened the gate to two purified states. A Germany without Jews and in Israel, without Palestinians.”
The Nuremberg trials, held in 1946 in Nuremberg, Germany, were a series of military trials in which top members of the Germany’s Nazi party were prosecuted for their participation in the Holocaust and other war crimes.
In a Spring 2015 essay titled “Settler Colonialism, Then and Now” Mamdani compared Israel to “settler America” and Palestinians to Native Americans, stating that “Zionists in Israel have long drawn inspiration from how Americans cleansed the land of Indians.”
Mamdani then compared Native Americans to Jews in Nazi Germany, quoting an American Indian law specialist who wrote: “The Indian plays much the same role in our American society that the Jews played in Germany. Like the miner’s canary, the Indian marks the shift from fresh air to poison gas in our political atmosphere.”
Mamdani then added: “the Palestinian plays that same role in contemporary Israeli society”
On November 13, 2002, Mamdani spoke at a Columbia event and compared Israel to Liberian Apartheid and South African Apartheid and Jim Crow racism in the U.S.
Mamdani opened his remarks by saying: “Those familiar with the United Nations know that there is one state which stands in defiance of practically every U.N. resolution that affects it: this is the state of Israel. In the international community, the name Israel stands for the exercise of power with impunity.”
Mamdani continued: “Who can forget that South Africa claimed to be ‘the only democracy in Africa’ just as Israel today claims to be ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’?... Zionist Israel, just as the colony of Liberia and apartheid South Africa, reflect a contradictory unity, a democratic despotism, in a single and contiguous space.”
Mamdani alleged that “The state of Israel is a state. It is not a religion, nor a people… Without a distinction between state and society, power and people, there can be no democracy. This is not to deny that Zionism in Israel – like Jim Crow racism in the U.S. or apartheid in Israel – is not just a state project but also a social project…”
In February 2009, one month after Israel’s Operation Cast Lead (OCL), Mahmood signed a a US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) letter, titled “Letter on Academic Freedom in Palestine,” calling on Columbia University President Lee Bollinger to “make public [his] opposition” to Israeli security measures in the West Bank and Gaza.”
Israel commenced Operation Cast Lead (OCL) in 2008-09 in order to stop Hamas rocket fire from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians. In 2010, Hamas admitted that nearly 700 of the Palestinian casualties in OCL were combatants.
In a March 23, 2021 Jadaliyya interview Mamdani offered an alternative political solution to the Israel Palestine conflict saying: “I point to de-Zionization, which would sever the state from the nation. The heart of de-Zionization is the realization of Israel as a state for all its citizens. I look to the South African moment as a model for de-Zionization.”
As a faculty member at Columbia, Mamdani has promoted BDS initiatives at the university in 2002, 2009 and 2016.
In October 2002, during the second intifada, the Columbia/Barnard Faculty Committee on Divestment, launched a BDS campaign on campus and circulated a petition demanding that Columbia divest from “all companies that manufacture arms and other military hardware sold to Israel, as well from companies that sell such arms and military hardware to Israel.”
The Columbia/Barnard Faculty Committee on Divestment was a group of Columbia and Barnard faculty members concerned about what they alleged to be the "brutality of Israeli military rule over Palestinians in the West Bank,"
In an October 25, 2002 press release, the group stated that “this new divestment movement takes as its model the anti-Apartheid campaigns of boycott and divestment that played a critical role in dismantling the former South African regime.”
In October 2002, Mahmood signed the petition which also called on Columbia “to use its influence--political and financial--to encourage the United States government to suspend its military aid and arms sales to Israel… until Israel complies with all the relevant UN resolutions and Geneva conventions, and ends its military occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip seized since 1967.”
On November 7, 2002, Columbia President Lee Bollinger and then Barnard President Judith Shapiro publicly denounced the faculty divestment initiative and the petition. Bollinger wrote: “The petition alleges human rights abuses and compares Israel to South Africa at the time of apartheid, an analogy I believe is both grotesque and offensive.”
On November 13, 2002, Mamdani was a featured speaker at a Columbia faculty divestment “teach-in” event titled:“SHOULD COLUMBIA INVEST IN ARMS FOR ISRAEL? A discussion of social responsibility, human rights, and the new divestment campaign.”
On March 4, 2009, Mamdani was a featured speaker at a divestment “teach-in,” sponsored by the Columbia Palestine Forum, to launch a divestment campaign at Columbia. Other speakers at the event included anti-Israel Columbia professors Gil Andijar, Brinkley Messick, and Bruce Robbins.
The teach-in also featured representatives from Adalah-NY, a BDS advocacy group that defines itself as “The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel.”
At the event, Mamdani reportedly “focused mostly on the use of the term apartheid, acknowledging that it does not fit perfectly with the situation in Israel…Though he clarified that apartheid is specific to racial discrimination, Mamdani argued the distinction was immaterial, and that Israel is linked to South Africa by a similar systematization.”
In March of 2016, Mamdani signed a petition that endorsed the 2016 BDS campaign launched by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a coalition of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) that promotes BDS at Columbia.
On February 1, 2016, CUAD launched a divestment campaign on Facebook with a petition and inaugural event titled “BDS 101,” scheduled for February 4, 2016. CUAD’s Facebook post stated that the campaign was “embedded in the larger BDS movement.”
CUAD described the campaign in its Facebook post as a “call for the University to divest its stocks, funds, and endowment from companies that profit from the State of Israel's ongoing system of settler colonialism, military occupation, and apartheid law.”
CUAD’s campaign targeted eight companies and alleged that by failing to divest from these companies, Columbia was supporting “continued occupation of and assaults against the Palestinian people,” by Israel.
In an April 13, 2021 interview titled “The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities” Mamdani said [01:03:39]: “Now, I argued that BDS is a good thing...BDS’ program is to isolate Israel internationally. That’s fine.”
In a January 17, 2021 Zoom broadcast with fellow Columbia professor Gil Anidjar, Mamdani argued [00:19:03] that the BDS movement has “misread the significance of the anti-apartheid struggle” and said [00:19:20] that BDS should “adopt a politicial strategy that will welcome anti-Zionist and non-Zionist Jews into the larger movement for a ‘de-Zionization’ of the Israeli state.”
On May 14, 2016, Mamdani tweeted: “anti-Zionist solidarity between Palestinians and Israelis should boost not undermine BDS and quest for justice.”
In August 2014, during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Mamdani signed a letter calling on “scholars and librarians within Middle East studies to boycott Israeli academic institutions.”
Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
The letter also pledged "not to collaborate on projects and events involving Israeli academic institutions, not to teach at or to attend conferences and other events at such institutions, and not to publish in academic journals based in Israel.”
On August 10, 2014, Mamdani promoted a BDS petition on Twitter titled “African Solidarity with Palestine,” that called for an academic boycott on Israel.
The petition stated: “we call on our colleagues to boycott Israeli academic institutions, and we pledge not to collaborate on projects and events involving Israeli academic institutions, not to teach at or to attend conferences and other events at such institutions, and not to publish in academic journals based in Israel.”
The petition claimed a “responsibility to respond to the obstacles to the right to higher education that the Israeli state has created for Palestinians” citing a June 2014 raid by Israeli forces on Birzeit University (Birzeit) following the disappearance of three Israeli teenagers.
In August 2014, Hamas admitted responsibility for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers at a bus stop on June 12th of that year. The bodies of the abducted boys were found buried in Palestinian-controlled territory on June 30, 2014.
On December 6, 2013, Mamdani promoted a resolution on Twitter passed by American Studies Association (ASA) that endorsed BDS.
In 2013, the ASA adopted a resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israel during its annual conference.
Mamdani was featured in a video posted on Instagram on April 17, 2024, speaking [00:00:04] at the Columbia encampment.
The post said: “Students began a Gaza Solidarity encampment and set up a liberated zone in front of Butler library. Professor Mahmood Mamdani offered greetings from faculty in solidarity and talked about the similarities between the anti-apartheid movement and the one for Palestinian liberation now.”
On April 22, 2024, Mahmood Mamdani, along with other Columbia faculty members, in the “‘Faculty Walkout’ rally…to support Palestine and Liberated Zone Encampment.” The event was held in support of the students arrested by the New York Police Department (NYPD) and suspended by the university.Mamdani can be participated [00:14:01] on the bottom right of the video, wearing a black hat.
Faculty members carrying signs that said [00:00:35]: “END STUDENT SUSPENSIONS NOW” and “HANDS OFF OUR STUDENTS” walked out of their classrooms and made their way to the steps of the library facing the encampment. A crowd gathered and chanted: “Disclose! Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest!” Many walkout participants addressed [00:00:14] the crowd, expressing faculty support for their students and the encampment.
Mamdani participated in the pro-Hamas encampment on April 29, 2024, according to a tip submitted to Canary Mission. Mamdani can be seen wearing a dark baseball cap, a yellow scarf around his neck and an orange faculty vest.
Numerous Columbia faculty and staff members participated in the encampment wearing bright orange vests with yellow and gray stripes. Taped to each vest was a label that said either “FACULTY” or “STAFF.” They had organized to support the student protestors in various ways. Some made up a “human barricade” to prevent Jewish students from entering [00:03:16] the campus, and some held signs saying: “HANDS OFF OUR STUDENTS" and [00:00:31] “No cops on campus.” Other faculty and staff “lined up in front of the encampment in a show of solidarity with the student body."
There was also a group of Columbia faculty and staff members who wore [00:01:00, 00:02:12] yellow vests with gray stripes during the encampment. On one occasion, they prevented [00:03:06] those they deemed “provocateurs” [00:01:09, 00:01:26] from entering Columbia as well.
On April 17, 2024, Columbia students and anti-Israel activists set up a pro-Hamas “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the university's main lawn. Many participants were arrested and the encampment featured multiple violent incidents, including taking over a campus building and taking a university worker hostage.
Activists protested Israel’s war against Hamas and demanded that Columbia “divest from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation…”
The action had reportedly been planned for months and was organized by the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition. The encampment was also organized by Columbia’s banned pro-Hamas activist group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the university chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Activists reportedly received training from National SJP and other anti-Israel organizations.
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by pro-terror activist Omar Barghouti in 2005 to turn “Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.” Barghouti has also called for Israel's destruction and the BDS movement demands would result in that same goal.
BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.
The movement’s most notable achievement has been infiltrating university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments propose resolutions to boycott or divestment from Israel or Israeli-affiliated entities. BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents and pro-terror activism on campus.
