The New York Post reports that Rama Duwaji, the wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, will fly next month for a private visit to Syria and Lebanon, accompanied by security personnel from the New York Police Department\u2019s (NYPD) protective detail, funded by taxpayers.<\/p>\n
The flight, scheduled to depart on September 20, is headed to destinations subject to the U.S. State Department\u2019s most severe travel warnings because of dangerous conditions. A source familiar with the security arrangements said that Duwaji, a 29-year-old Syrian-American artist, requested police protection even though she traveled abroad last month without an NYPD escort. The source stressed: \u201cThis is not an official mission, and there is no benefit to the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s office confirmed both the planned trip and the participation of the police security detail: \u201cAt the recommendation of the NYPD, the mayor\u2019s wife\u2019s security detail will accompany her as she travels to visit family in Syria and Lebanon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s office declined to provide further details about the flight or address whether the trip is solely for family purposes. Duwaji has previously been at the center of public controversies over her pro-Palestinian positions and her participation in various events abroad.<\/p>\n
Tel Aviv Vice Mayor offers charity boxing match against NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/p>\n
The report prompted sharp criticism from figures in the Jewish community. Dov Hikind, a former New York State Assemblyman from Brooklyn and founder of Americans Against Antisemitism, strongly criticized the decision to send police officers with her. \u201cWe\u2019re putting our police officers at risk. They\u2019ll be viewed as the enemy; these are war zones,\u201d Hikind said. He added sarcastically that Duwaji herself would not need protection in those places: \u201cDuwaji doesn\u2019t need security. She\u2019ll receive a hero\u2019s welcome and will be protected by Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. Duwaji will be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Post reports that Rama Duwaji, the wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-318530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}