Mayor Zohran Mamdani defended hosting divisive anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil at Gracie Mansion this week – claiming he was standing up for free speech rights even as pro-Israel advocates slammed the invite.

“As the mayor of New York City, I believe it is my responsibility to fight for the safety and for the rights of each and every New Yorker,” Mamdani said Thursday when asked about the controversial get-together at the mayoral residence.

“The only charge that was levied against him [Khalil] was the exercising of his First Amendment rights,” Hizzoner insisted during an unrelated press conference in The Bronx.

Mahmoud Khalil with Mayor Zohran Mamdani, his wife, Rama Duwaji at dinner at the Gracie Mansion. Instagram / nycmayor

“And I have long maintained that he and any New Yorker should be able to exercise their First Amendment rights in this city without fear of the kind of punishment that was inflicted upon him,” he said.

Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, and his wife Rama Duwaji, celebrated Iftar Sunday with the ex-Columbia University grad student — who became an early poster boy for the left’s pushback against President Trump’s immigration ramp-up after he was detained by ICE.

The Syrian-born activist, who was at the forefront of Columbia’s anti-Israel campus protests, made disturbing comments about the Oct. 7, 2023, slaughter of Israelis by Hamas, calling it an unavoidable moment justified by the Palestinian “struggle.”

Mamdani posted a photo on social media Monday showing Khalil smiling while sitting at a dinner table, with a beaming Duwaji standing next to him with a plate of food, during the celebration that also included the campus activist’s wife and young son.

“Last night, as we marked the one year anniversary of his detention, Rama and I were honored to welcome Mahmoud, Noor [his wife], and their son Deen to Gracie Mansion to break our fast together,” Mamdani wrote along with the photo.

The publicly-revealed Gracie Mansion dinner sparked immediate blowback from pro-Israel advocates and conservatives.

The front cover of the New York Post on August 8, 2025. csuarez

Lishi Baker, a Jewish Columbia University senior who previously headed the pro-Israel group Aryeh on campus, skewered the mayor for hosting Khalil — who has been accused by the Trump administration of supporting Hamas.

“[Mamdani] is glorifying and lifting up this pro-Hamas, anti-American protester for a meal at Gracie Mansion,” Baker previously told The Post.

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Even the White House weighed in.

“No one should be feting the anti-American, pro-terrorist activities of Mahmoud Khalil, who made his name as a ringleader of violent anti-American and anti-Semitic university protests that harmed American foreign policy interests,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani spoke on Thursday, March 12, 2026. Lone Pine Press for NY Post

The Trump administration last year attempted to deport Khalil, using a rare statute that allows for non-citizens to be booted from the US if their beliefs pose a threat to the government’s foreign policy interests. The feds cited Khalil’s involvement in the rowdy protests at Columbia during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza against Hamas.

Khalil has also made a series of troubling remarks, including last year when he apparently justified the Oct. 7 attack, describing the bloodshed as a “desperate” moment which Palestinians “had to reach” to have their voices heard.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t avoid such a moment,” he said in an interview with The New York Times when asked about the attack by the terror group.

Hundreds attend a rally to celebrate the release of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who was one of the most visible leaders of nationwide pro-Palestinian campus protests, on June 22, 2025 in New York City. Michael Nigro for NY Post

“To me, it felt frightening that we had to reach this moment in the Palestinian struggle,” he said.

Following his release from custody, Khalil also made headlines when he showed up to an anti-Israel rally in the Big Apple and quoted alleged Hamas terrorist and Al Jazeera correspondent, Anas al-Sharif, who was killed in an Israeli missile strike in August.

“The time is now, the bridges towards liberation start with us,” Khalil bellowed to the crowd as he recalled al-Sharif’s final words.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Rental Ripoff Hearing at Fordham University on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in New York. AP

United Jewish Teachers president Moshe Spern ripped Mamdani for “promoting someone who went out of his way to harass Jewish students at Columbia on a government social media account is a clear sign of disrespect to the Jewish community.”

The Anti-Defamation League also skewered Mamdani for welcoming Khalil as an “honored guest” at the mayor’s official residence.

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“Welcoming someone known for justifying the October 7 Hamas terror attacks as an honored guest at Gracie Mansion — while some in the Mayor’s inner circle have amplified antisemitic content and posts dismissing the atrocities of that day — sends a deeply troubling message,” an ADL spokesperson said.

“Gracie Mansion belongs to all New Yorkers. Public office must never be used to legitimize hate, and New York’s Jewish community deserves a mayor who makes that clear in both words and actions.”