New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is defending his transition team after naming Tamika Mallory — an activist with a long history of alleged antisemitism — to the committee responsible for shaping policy on community safety, policing, and hate crime prevention.

Mallory, a former leader of the Women’s March movement, stepped down from the group’s board in 2019 after national outrage over antisemitism within its leadership. She repeatedly praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, known for decades of antisemitic rhetoric, and refused to condemn his statements targeting Jews. Mallory was also reported to have claimed that Jews were responsible for the oppression of people of color, a charge she later denied. Her appointment now places her in a key advisory role for a city home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel.

Mamdani unveiled more than 400 advisers on Monday, spread across 17 committees as he prepares to take office in January 2026. Alongside Mallory, several other appointees have histories of anti-Israel activism. One of the most notable is Ramzi Kassem, selected to serve on the Committee on Legal Affairs. Kassem is a longtime critic of Israel who worked on the legal defense of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University protest leader detained by U.S. authorities during campus demonstrations. As head of Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility (CLEAR), a legal clinic at CUNY Law School, Kassem has advised some of the city’s most hardline anti-Zionist groups.

Another controversial pick is Hassan Naveed, who will serve on Mamdani’s Committee on Community Safety. Naveed previously led the city’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes before suing Mayor Eric Adams last year. In that suit, Naveed claimed that Islamophobia within the administration intensified after Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel and that Adams compared anti-Zionist rallies to Ku Klux Klan gatherings. Naveed alleged that Adams unfairly criticized Muslim leaders for failing to condemn Hamas, inflaming tensions with Muslim staffers and organizers.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)