New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani tried to thread a needle on the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks by condemning Hamas\u2019 \u201chorrific war crimes\u201d and denouncing Israel\u2019s \u201cgenocide\u201d in Gaza. It did not go well.<\/p>\n
Instead, his comments further angered some Jewish critics who consider his strong opposition to Israel antisemitic, and pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted a Wednesday night vigil for victims of Hamas’ attack to confront the mayor and cast him as a traitor to their cause.<\/p>\n
Mamdani, a Democrat and the city’s first Muslim mayor, has long been a fierce defender of Palestinian human rights and is one of the country’s most prominent political critics of Israel\u2019s military actions in Gaza. His stance has drawn scrutiny in a city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel, while at times some on the far-left have bashed him for not doing enough to hold Israel to account.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Mamdani appeared to take the protest in stride, telling reporters: \u201cI am the mayor of New York City and this is what I signed up for.\u201d<\/p>\n
A parsed statement<\/p>\n
The maelstrom began when Mamdani commemorated the victims of Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel with a statement that began with a solemn recognition of the \u201cunthinkable loss\u201d suffered by Israelis but then focused on castigating Israel’s military response. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe suffering did not begin nor end that day,\u201d the statement read. \u201cIt instead continued through the Israeli government\u2019s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which it has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians \u2014 including more than 21,000 children.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement reignited criticism that Mamdani harbors antisemitic views \u2014 a claim he has vehemently denied \u2014 and was blaming Israel for the attack. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a reprehensible statement on the anniversary of the horrific terrorist attack by a Palestinian terrorist organization against innocent Israelis,\u201d U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, a Jewish Democrat in New York, wrote on X. \u201cIn the guise of \u2018grieving\u2019 with those mourning that day, Mayor Mamdani asserts as fact hotly disputed allegations that he knows full well will offend and further upset those same people he pretends to grieve with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ofir Akunis, consul general of Israel in New York, called the mayor’s statement a \u201cdisgrace, shame, and insult to the memory of those who were murdered on October 7.\u201d <\/p>\n
Asked Thursday whether he would change his statement if given the chance, Mamdani said: \u201cIt is critically important to be able to mourn for all of those who were killed and have been killed since, especially given that we know this is ongoing, as opposed to something simply that was three years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, who met with the mayor earlier this year over his rhetoric, said Mamdani had \u201cdoubled down\u201d by signaling he would not temper his language around Israel. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like there’s an opportunity for him to, you know, make an adjustment. I don’t think anybody asked him to stop being who he is,\u201d Jacobs said in an interview. \u201cBut he has failed to see how his deeply held beliefs endanger New Yorkers.\u201d <\/p>\n
Simmering tensions<\/p>\n
Mamdani, who took office in January, has moved to assuage concerns that his criticism of Israel\u2019s government is antisemitic, courting high-profile Jewish political allies and late last month debuting a sweeping plan to address antisemitism and hate crimes in the city. <\/p>\n
At the same time, he has continued to employ, and defend, heated rhetoric toward Israel, which includes calling for the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he calls a \u201cwar criminal\u201d and \u201cthe architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people.\u201d <\/p>\n
Netanyahu, in an address at the United Nations General Assembly last month, called Mamdani \u201cthe antisemitic mayor of New York\u201d and charged that \u201cmany Jews no longer feel safe in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamdani also marked the anniversary by attending a candlelight vigil at Union Square in Manhattan organized by Israelis For Peace, which describes itself as a group of Israeli anti-occupation activists. The vigil was disrupted by protesters who waved Palestinian flags and chanted. <\/p>\n
Mamdani, who did not speak at the vigil, appeared somber while protesters booed and yelled: \u201cZohran, your hands are red!\u201d <\/p>\n
At one point, Brad Lander, a Jewish politician who struck up an alliance with Mamdani when they were both running for mayor last year, denounced the violence overseas, saying \u201cno matter what country or nationality or religion, every mother, every mother gives birth to her children and wants the best for them, wants life for them.\u201d Protesters jeered. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe refused to compromise on anyone\u2019s humanity. No amount of shouting stopped us,\u201d Lander, the Democratic nominee for a House seat in Manhattan and Brooklyn, later wrote on X with a photo taken at the vigil. \u201cMay their memory be for a blessing.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani tried to thread a needle on the third anniversary of the Oct.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,82],"class_list":["post-368816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368816","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=368816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}