First Palestinian American elected in New York talks to Al Jazeera

The first thing I want to do when I get into office is tax the rich to get the money to be able to pass the affordability agenda for New Yorkers. I never thought about getting into politics because as a Muslim growing up in the United States, I always felt like the political system really was repressive to our communities. But after witnessing the genocide in Gaza, while also witnessing an affordability crisis happening to my neighbors in New York, I knew that I had to do whatever was in my own power to try to change the political atmosphere that we have in the United States. This bill was essentially to stop the flow of money going from New York State to settler entities that were taking land of Palestinians. And it was a bill that actually was very unpopular in the beginning. It was not popular amongst many people in the state legislature. And a lot of people told Mamdani at that time that his political career was going to be over. We thought that speaking about Palestine was going to be something that would make us lose voters, but in fact it actually built the trust of voters and so many voters told us that they wanted to support somebody who was fighting against war and fighting for Palestinian human rights. I want to focus on the affordability agenda, actually making sure that housing is affordable for people, that we're passing universal health care for everybody because health care costs are so high. Really being able to help New Yorkers afford their lives while stopping any harm that is happening to them. But the reason that I am here today is truly because of all of you. If there's people power behind you, that is what you can carry with you and that's who you'll be accountable to. All of you! All of you!