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\n New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday defended his remarks last week <\/a>sharply denouncing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee after prominent Jewish leaders accused him of antisemitism.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhen I am speaking about AIPAC, I\u2019m speaking about an organization that has been supportive of the status quo, that has fought any attempt to actually deliver safety to people, not just in Palestine, but frankly, through much of the region, and it is a status quo for immorality,\u201d Mamdani said during a press conference at City Hall, pointing to Israeli operations in Gaza. \u201cAnd when it comes to the way in which they defend the status quo, oftentimes they defend it through direct contributions, as we are seeing right now in New York.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The mayor, a prominent critic of Israel\u2019s government, is facing pushback after Jewish leaders argued that he went too far in his recent condemnation of the pro-Israel lobby\u2019s spending in a New York House primary.\n <\/p>\n \n As Mamdani rallied with a slate of progressive challengers he has endorsed on Thursday, he described\u201cmonsters\u201d that he said include \u201cthose who fund television ads that blanket the airwaves with misleading and bad faith attacks\u201d against his three endorsed candidates. Mamdani then ripped into AIPAC, which has spent millions to boost pro-Israel candidates in congressional primaries this year, often by running ads that reference domestic issues rather than foreign policy.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThey move millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal, to preserve their power, so that they can turn us against one another, instead of our leaders turning towards the moral change we all know to be necessary,\u201d Mamdani said.\n <\/p>\n \n According to Federal Election Commission filings<\/a>, AIPAC\u2019s super PAC, United Democracy Project, made two political contributions last month totaling over $600,000 to BOLD America, which has been funding ads in support of Rep. Adriano Espaillat \u2013 whom Mamdani-backed candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier<\/a> is challenging in New York\u2019s 13th District.\n <\/p>\n \n CNN has reached out to AIPAC for comment.\n <\/p>\n \n In the following days, the leaders of the Anti-Defamation League <\/a>and the American Jewish Committee<\/a> condemned Mamdani\u2019s remarks, accusing Mamdani of using antisemitic tropes and warning of the dangers of such language coming from the mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cMayor Mamdani, referring to fellow New Yorkers as \u2018monsters\u2019 is outrageous and dangerous, and the impact of your words extends far beyond politics,\u201d said Ted Deutch, the AJC\u2019s CEO, in a post on X.\n <\/p>\n \n New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Jewish Democrat, echoed those concerns on Sunday evening.\n <\/p>\n