The father of socialist mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani helped found the so-called Gaza Tribunal�a self-styled �court of conscience� that serves as a propaganda vehicle for Hamas sympathizers seeking to criminalize Israel and the West.

Mahmood Mamdani, a 79-year-old Columbia University professor and longtime anti-Israel activist, attended the group�s inaugural meetings in London last year. The �tribunal,� which has no legal authority or judicial standing, claims to be gathering evidence against �Israeli perpetrators and Western enablers� over the war in Gaza. Its advisory council includes figures accused of close ties to Hamas and activists with a history of extremist rhetoric.

Among Mamdani�s colleagues on the panel is Ramy Abdu, a Palestinian financier and chair of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor�a group that the Israeli government says functions as Hamas�s main operational front in Europe. After the October 7 terror attacks that left 1,200 Israelis dead, Abdu�s organization posted online that the massacre footage had been �doctored,� implying that slain Hamas terrorists were civilians�a claim widely denounced as a grotesque distortion.

The tribunal�s chairman, Richard Falk, is a former Princeton professor and ex-U.N. envoy who was barred from entering Israel in 2008 over his �hostile position� toward the Jewish state. Falk was later condemned by the United Nations itself after suggesting that the U.S. government might have orchestrated the 9/11 terror attacks.

Another adviser, Hatem Bazian, a professor at UC Berkeley and founder of American Muslims for Palestine, is currently under Senate investigation for ties to Hamas-linked organizations that helped fund Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)�the group that organized anti-Israel encampments at colleges nationwide.

Notably, Zohran Mamdani himself founded Bowdoin College�s SJP chapter in 2013 and led boycott efforts against Israel the following year.

�This tribunal is nothing more than a cesspool of Hamas propagandists and Western apologists,� said Gregg Roman, executive director of the Middle East Forum. �Mamdani�s father is openly cavorting with people responsible for terrorism against Israel. Like father, like son.�

The Gaza Tribunal�s website frames itself as a response to �the constraints of international justice,� citing dissatisfaction with the International Criminal Court�s pace in pursuing war crimes cases against Israel. But its rhetoric has mirrored Hamas talking points, accusing Western media of �dehumanizing Palestinians� and U.S. universities of �actively supporting genocide.�

At its latest meeting this week in Istanbul, participants accused �Western corporate media� of complicity in �Israel�s crimes,� while another member�Maura Finkelstein, a former Muhlenberg College professor fired last year for anti-Israel statements�charged that U.S. higher education �actively supports Israel�s genocide.�

Financial disclosures show the tribunal�s fundraising is managed by the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), a New York-based NGO that has received nearly $600,000 from George Soros�s Open Society Foundations. ICTJ also counts funding from Humanity United, the nonprofit of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam.

Mamdani Sr., a fixture of Columbia�s far-left academic scene, previously called for the university to boycott Israel and has used his platform to promote �decolonization� movements that paint Israel as an apartheid state.

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