{"id":368714,"date":"2026-10-09T08:16:58","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T08:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/368714\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T08:16:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T08:16:58","slug":"nyc-mayor-mamdani-uses-3rd-anniversary-of-oct-7-atrocity-to-attack-israel-for-ongoing-genocide-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/368714\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Mayor Mamdani uses 3rd anniversary of Oct. 7 atrocity to attack Israel for ‘ongoing genocide’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s statement marking the third anniversary of Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 attack<\/a> Wednesday largely attacked Israel for committing \u201cwar crimes\u201d in an \u201congoing genocide\u201d \u2014 sparking outrage from Jewish advocates who said Hizzoner was \u201cweaponizing\u201d the tragedy.<\/p>\n

Hizzoner dedicated less than a quarter of his written statement to the \u201cunthinkable loss\u201d suffered when \u201cHamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others\u201d on Oct. 7, 2023 \u2014 with the vast majority devoted to his ongoing attacks on Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe suffering did not begin nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli government\u2019s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza,\u201d he said, citing Hamas statistics as he decried the Palestinian casualties of the war launched in response to the terrorist attack.<\/a><\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a Crime Stats press conference at NYPD Headquarters, 1 Police Plaza, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026. William Farrington for The NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cThat suffering has intensified with every Israeli bomb dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting a residential building or journalist<\/a>, and every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree years later, we must refuse to accept a world in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity with every arms shipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The slanted statement by the mayor \u2014 already widely criticized for making Jewish New Yorkers feel unsafe<\/a> with his ongoing attacks on Israel \u2014 was quickly met with horror as many accused him of undermining the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s words stood in stark contrast to those of other prominent local elected officials, including Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a>, who noted that Oct. 7, 2023 was the deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pain of that dark day has not faded. But neither has the strength, resilience and enduring hope of the Jewish people,\u201d Hochul said in a statement \u2014 as she directed flags on state buildings to be flown at half-staff and several landmarks to be illuminated yellow in solidarity with the Israeli people.<\/p>\n

Naama Levy is taken hostage, Oct. 7, 2023. Levy was awakened by a missile barrage during the Hamas attack on Israel before sending a final message to her mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we remember the innocent lives stolen, stand with the survivors and the families forever changed, and pray for a lasting peace,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn), meanwhile, slammed the \u201cHamas terrorists intent on destroying Israel,\u201d in his statement, while later on decrying the \u201cconsiderable suffering\u201d seen in the Middle East in the years since, including the deaths of Palestinian civilians.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the latest as the world marks the 3rd anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel:<\/p>\n

City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who is Jewish, took a veiled shot at Mamdani in a statement of her own, writing: \u201cToday, on the anniversary of the horrific October 7th terrorist attack, the focus should be on remembering the more than 1,200 people who were murdered by Hamas and the suffering of the 251 people who were taken hostage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very difficult day for the Jewish community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blood is seen splattered in a child\u2019s room following a massive Hamas militant attack in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel. AP<\/p>\n

The slanted statement by Mamdani \u2014 already widely criticized for making Jewish New Yorkers feel unsafe<\/a> with his ongoing attacks against Israel \u2014 was quickly met with blowback as many accused him of undermining the terrorist attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he is trying to do is hijack the only day we have for the victims and survivors. He\u2019s trying to hijack the day to talk about attacking Israel,\u201d Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon told The Post, adding \u201cIt\u2019s like on 9\/11 you talked about victims and al-Qaeda terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s basically taking the only day we have for victims and trying to attack Israel with propaganda,\u201d Danon said, before pointing out that Mamdani was set to attend both a vigil marking the attack Wednesday evening, and then host a sit-down with Palestinian New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s dangerous and sophisticated,\u201d the ambassador said of the mayor. \u201cHe will go to both ceremonies and try to say he feels for both losses of life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, also accused Mamdani of weaponizing the memory of the victims to push his own agenda and undermine the Jewish community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNot once do you say \u201cJews,\u201d Greenblatt wrote on X. \u201cOn Oct. 7, Hamas-led attackers murdered civilians, committed sexual violence, mutilated bodies and took hostages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are weaponizing a day meant for mourning the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust to recycle your usual anti-zionist talking points,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s 211-word statement indeed made no mention of the Jewish people \u2014 even as the religious group has been facing a surge in antisemitic attacks in<\/a> New York City.<\/p>\n

\u201cLibeling Jews and the Jewish state puts Jewish New Yorkers at risk. The mayor\u2019s own hate crimes statistics support this,\u201d said Moshe Spern, president of the United Jewish Teachers group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anti-Jewish offenses have jumped at least 8% in the last year, with overall hate crimes souring by nearly 16%, according to the NYPD.<\/p>\n

Hamas terrorists bringing an abducted an Israeli woman into Khan Yunis on Oct. 7, 2023. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Mamdani devoted more than 60% of his statement to the \u201congoing genocide in Gaza,\u201d citing death toll figures provided by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, which does not differentiate between terrorists and civilians.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gave Hamas a single sentence and then spent the rest of his statement condemning Israel,\u201d seethed Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot proclaim empathy and care for the Jewish community and then fail to show basic humanity toward us in our grief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacobs added: \u201cTurning this anniversary into an indictment of the Jewish state is not only hurtful, and deeply offensive, but it also makes Jewish New Yorkers less safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israeli family members visit a memorial site for victims of the Nova music festival near Re\u2019im, southern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. ATEF SAFADI\/EPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

City Councilman Eric Dinowitz, a Bronx Democrat and chair of the Jewish Caucus, suggested the mayor\u2019s comments were an attempt to justify Hamas\u2019 war crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHamas invaded Israel, deliberately targeted civilians, and kidnapped 251 people including babies and the elderly,\u201d Dinowitz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the Jewish community and allies of democracy mourn, others are celebrating this invasion,\u201d he said. \u201cThese atrocities must never be glorified, and to contextualize them is to justify them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman \u2014 the Republican candidate for governor<\/a> running against Hochul in November \u2014 also accused Mamdani of making a false moral equivalence between Hamas terrorists and Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was unconscionable to draw a moral equivalency between the land dispute between two nations and a terrorist group going in, and murdering innocent, unarmed people, raping women, burning babies, beheading babies,\u201d Blakeman said at an unrelated press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will never forget October 7,\u201d Blakeman also said in his own statement marking the anniversary, adding \u201cthis is personal to me\u201d as the first Jewish Nassau County executive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree years later, that pain has not gone away. If anything, it has been compounded by the alarming rise of antisemitism around the world \u2014 including here in New York,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI will never forget what happened that day, and I will never accept the attempts to minimize, excuse, or rewrite the horrors committed by Hamas,\u201d Blakeman said.<\/p>\n

Hochul, who has previously defended Mamdani against allegations of anti-semitism, avoided directly condemning his statements during an MTA-related news event Wednesday, instead saying the situation in Gaza should not overshadow a day of remembrance<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anything should diminish from this day, this three-year occurrence, because there are a lot of New York families \u2014 like Omer Neutra\u2019s parents from Long Island \u2014 who are having their wounds reopened as they think about their son, kidnapped, that they\u2019ve been praying for for hundreds of days,\u201d she told reporters.<\/p>\n

Neutra, 21, was a New York-native who served as an IDF tank commander before he was killed and abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a state memorial ceremony in the Mt. Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. Debbie Hill\/Pool UPI via AP<\/p>\n

Hochul was set to attend a vigil at 7 p.m. in the city with the United Jewish Appeal group, which had previously criticized Mamdani.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the same time, the mayor was scheduled to be in Union Square for a candlelit vigil meant to honor both those killed on Oct. 7 and in the subsequent war, hosted by the group Israelis for Peace.<\/p>\n

Tamar Glazerman, co-founder of Israelis for Peace, said Mamdani asked to attend but will not be speaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will be listening to the texts that are being read. The texts will be either testimonies of survivors. Some of them are eulogies,\u201d said Glazerman.<\/p>\n

The event will take place after a planned protest in front of City Hall by anti-Zionist groups criticizing Mamdani\u2019s alleged \u201cbetrayal\u201d of Palestinian causes since taking office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mamdani reiterated his remarks during an interview with NY1, calling Oct. 7 \u201ca horrific war crime\u201d while arguing that Israel\u2019s response amounted to \u201ca genocide.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lesson for all of us is that humanity has to be something that we believe in its fullest sense. We have to protect it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to be able to call an atrocity what it is and fight for a future where everyone is protected, no matter who they are, where they come from.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Additional reporting by Carl Campanile, Jennifer Bain and Matthew Fischetti<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s statement marking the third anniversary of Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 attack Wednesday largely attacked Israel for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[662,59,60,61,57,9,56,63,65,64,1479,3694,58,1076,82],"class_list":["post-368714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-gaza-strip","tag-hamas","tag-israel","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-palestinians","tag-terrorism","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368714","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=368714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}