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Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism has recommended blacklisting Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, from entering the country over her pro-Palestinian activity on social media.
Ministry Director General Avi Cohen-Scali said in a request to the Interior Ministry on Thursday that Duwaji’s use of the words “genocide,” “occupation” and “ethnic cleansing” about Israel merited a ban, reported Haaretz.
The statement also said that Duwaji’s posts over the years reflected a pattern of anti-Israel messaging. The ministry cited an illustration expressing solidarity with Palestinians with the text “ethnic cleansing, plain and simple,” an animation of a Palestinian woman buried under rubble, and posts questioning reports of Israeli women being raped by Hamas as a “mass hoax.”
Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli added, “The unrestrained remarks of New York’s mayor’s wife, denying the October 7 massacre and rapes, are unacceptable.”
Duwaji, an artist and pro-Palestinian advocate, has not expressed interest in visiting Israel. Mamdani refused to say he would visit Israel during his campaign, saying that “one need not visit Israel to stand up for Jewish New Yorkers” and that his support for boycotting Israel may prohibit him from entering even if he wanted to.
Duwaji has been repeatedly scrutinized in recent weeks over her engagement with social media posts that celebrated Oct. 7 and Palestinian militants, along with having providing illustrations for Susan Abulhawa, a Palestinian-American author who called Israelis and Jews “vampires,” “parasites” and “cockroaches” online. Mamdani has said his wife is “a private person” with no role in his administration.