Demonstrators attend an anti-Israel protest on the day of the two-year anniversary of the attack on Israel by Hamas, in New York City, US, Oct. 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
A veteran staffer of the New York City Health Department called for the eradication of all Israelis among a series of newly surfaced antisemitic social media posts, raising concerns about the safety of Jewish New Yorkers at a time of unease for the community with Mayor Zohran Mamdani in office.
The watchdog group Canary Mission on Sunday exposed screenshots of the since-deleted social media posts by Achmat Akkad, who according to his LinkedIn account is a “Mental Health First Aid Trainer” with the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and, since 2017, has reportedly worked there as a community coordinator.
Around a year ago Akkad posted, “1 Israeli left in this world would be one too many!”
Canary Mission also shared screenshots of a deleted Nov. 10, 2021, post in which Akkad stated, “Jews that don’t support apartheid are safe. Zionists aren’t!”
According to multiple reports, Mamdani has appointed Akkad as a “Community Engagement Training Specialist.”
The unearthing of Akkad’s posts follows recent criticism of the new “Global Oppression and Public Health Working Group” formed in Mamdani’s administration.
A cohort of staffers within the city’s Health Department reportedly formed the group and declared its purpose is to explore how supposed “global oppression” operates and affects health equity and the wellbeing of certain communities in the city. In its initial meeting, which lasted one hour, a presenter explicitly cited the conflict in Gaza as “ongoing genocide” and framed it along with other forms of alleged oppression as relevant to health outcomes, the New York Post reported.
Critics, including City Council leaders, say the working group crossed a line by focusing on international politics and critiques of a foreign government instead of core public health responsibilities like managing diseases, especially on city time with taxpayer-funded time and resources.
Meanwhile, Mamdani has come under fire for a wave of administrative appointees with histories of antisemitic rhetoric, support for terrorist groups, or affiliations with organizations hostile to Israel and the Jewish community.
Akkad specifically has also accused Israel of sustaining itself “by sacrificing the blood of Black and brown people as an offering to white supremacy,” according to screenshots shared by Canary Mission, He also argued that Zionists were responsible for a range of global issues, including far-right political gains, the dismantling of domestic racial diversity initiatives, limitations on free speech, conflicts and turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, discrimination against Muslims, and expanded police powers.
Akkad was arrested at a 2024 demonstration orchestrated by the controversial, anti-Israel Within Our Lifetime (WOL) activist organization. Members of WOL have repeatedly and publicly called for the destruction of Israel and have expressed effusive praise for Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Akkad first joined city government in 2015 as a community associate with the Human Resources Administration/Department of Social Services during the administration of former Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“If this is who gets elevated into city government, what does that say about the leadership elevating him? New Yorkers should be outraged,” Canary Mission wrote of Akkad.
In the first weeks of Mamdani’s mayorship, his office has fielded a barrage of complaints over the appointment of individuals with radical views. Catherine Almonte Da Costa, who had been named Mamdani’s director of appointments, was forced to step down after social media posts from around 2011–2012 resurfaced in which she used phrases echoing classic antisemitic tropes, including references to “money hungry Jews.”
Mamdani also faced backlash after he abruptly fired Moshe Davis from his position as executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism. Davis said in comments to The Free Press that he suspects he was relieved of his duties for being “a proud Zionist.” Davis was replaced by progressive Jewish activist Phylisa Wisdom.
Mamdani, a far-left democratic socialist and anti-Zionist, is an avid supporter of boycotting all Israeli-tied entities who has been widely accused of promoting antisemitic rhetoric. He has repeatedly accused Israel of “apartheid” and “genocide”; refused to recognize the country’s right to exist as a Jewish state; and refused to explicitly condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which has been associated with calls for violence against Jews and Israelis worldwide.
New York City has been experiencing a surge in antisemitic incidents since Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities. According to newly released police data, anti-Jewish hate crimes skyrocketed by 182 percent in January during Mamdani’s first month in office compared to the same period last year.