A civil war is brewing inside the New York City Democratic Socialists of America over Mayor Zohran Mamdani, with socialist activists turning against him over his attendance at an Oct. 7 vigil and continued support for NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. The mounting [1] dispute has exposed a bitter split between the mayor and some of his ideological comrades.
Youth chapters within NYC-DSA endorsed a protest outside City Hall on Wednesday, the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. The demonstration condemned what organizers called Mamdani’s “failures to uphold his commitment to the Palestinian Liberation Movement.”
Sources said leaders of the local chapter moved quickly to suppress the public criticism coming from youth chapters that had endorsed the rally. Those efforts did not stop protesters from confronting Mamdani later that day.
Mamdani was heckled while attending a candlelit vigil for the victims at Union Square. “Zohran, you can’t hide; we charge you with genocide,” protesters chanted as the mayor remained stone-faced through the jeers from comrades hostile to Israel.
Mamdani is stone-faced as the protesters call him a traitor and sellout. https://t.co/oXducpYsMR
— Peter Sterne (@petersterne) October 8, 2026 [2]
The confrontation added a public spectacle to a dispute that was already unfolding inside the socialist organization. Screenshots of internal group chats from NYC-DSA’s “Anti-War Working Group,” obtained by The Post, showed members raging over the chapter leadership’s apparent response to the youth organizations.
According to the screenshots, leadership apparently threatened to withdraw funding from the youth chapters and instructed members to stop using “pro-Hamas dogwhistles.” Members in the group chat denounced that language as “unambiguously racist” and “inexcusable.”
The anger centered on an Instagram post from Hunter College’s Youth DSA chapter, which had endorsed the protest outside City Hall. The post claimed NYC-DSA leaders threatened the funding of the youth chapters, escalating a disagreement that the local leadership had reportedly sought to contain.
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“I’m out of things to say with this chapter’s leadership. It’s just nonstop horsesh*t,” one participant wrote in the internal discussion. The remark captured the increasingly hostile mood inside a political movement now fighting with itself over the socialist mayor.
Another member offered to use their “status as a Jew w/ family in the entity” to help craft a response to the controversy. That participant then described having been registered for Israeli citizenship by family members before later renouncing it.
“I was born here but was signed up by fam for citizenship which I renounced, don’t care about Jewish/israeli feelings which, they should be made to cry more imho,” the member wrote. The statement appeared in the internal conversation as activists debated the chapter leadership’s actions.
The tensions intensified before Mamdani delivered a fiery denunciation of ICE during a press conference concerning a Thursday shooting in The Bronx. Federal agents shot an alleged criminal migrant during an arrest.
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Even after Mamdani’s remarks against ICE, protesters in the crowd accused the mayor of being “complicit.” The accusation showed that his rhetoric had done little to satisfy activists demanding action involving Tisch and the NYPD.
NYC-DSA followed with a Friday post on X that directly targeted the police commissioner. “Jessica Tisch must get ICE out of New York and end NYPD complicity with these terrorists,” the organization wrote.
“If the Commissioner can’t put a stop to these injustices, she must be fired,” NYC-DSA added. The organization did not directly call upon Mamdani, who appointed Tisch to the position, to remove her.
DSA-NYC co-chairs Grace Mausser and Gustavo Gordillo did not respond to requests for comment Friday. A City Hall spokesperson said there were no plans to remove Tisch from her post, leaving the mayor firmly at odds with activists demanding her firing.
The dispute now stretches from private group chats to social media, City Hall protests, and direct heckling of Mamdani at a vigil. For NYC-DSA, the socialist family feud has become increasingly public as youth activists challenge both chapter leaders and the mayor they helped support.
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