New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani’s statement marking the third anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel has drawn criticism from both sides of the US political divide. Democrats and Jewish groups accusing him of shifting attention from the victims of the attack to Israel’s war in Gaza, while some on the pro-Palestinian left say he did not go far enough.Mamdani’s statement began by calling October 7, 2023, a “profoundly painful” day and condemning Hamas’ “horrific war crimes”, including the killing of about 1,200 people in Israel and the taking of more than 250 hostages.“We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss,” he said.But Mamdani then turned to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, calling it a “devastating, ongoing genocide” and citing more than 74,000 deaths recorded by the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry.“Many New Yorkers are reckoning with this unbearable grief, and we mourn alongside them — all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes,” Mamdani said.He added that three years later, “occupation and apartheid continue”, while accusing the US federal government of complicity through arms shipments.The statement drew fierce criticism from several Democratic lawmakers, who said Mamdani had made the anniversary about Israel rather than Hamas and the people killed and abducted on October 7.Florida representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz accused Mamdani of “desecrating the memory of murdered, innocent Jews”, while New Jersey representative Josh Gottheimer said the mayor was “blaming the victims”. Jersey City mayor Steven Fulop called the statement “inappropriate and unnecessarily inflammatory”.New York representative Dan Goldman called the message “egregious and insulting”. Goldman told Politico that October 7 should be reserved for remembering what he described as a horrific terror attack, rather than using the occasion to focus on the broader conflict.“Regardless of what you actually think of the conflict and what’s happened either since or before, there’s no excuse for victim blaming,” Goldman said.Brad Lander, the Mamdani-backed Democrat who defeated Goldman in this year’s primary, took a more nuanced position. He condemned Hamas but argued against forcing people to choose between mourning the victims of October 7 and acknowledging Palestinian suffering.“We can mourn for those lost on October 7th and still acknowledge the enormous imbalance of power between Israel and the Palestinians,” Lander wrote.Mamdani also faced criticism from Jewish organisations. Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said the mayor’s statement did not mention Jews and accused him of using a day meant for mourning the victims of the attack to repeat his anti-Zionist arguments.US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called the statement an “outrageous & disgusting rant”, while Ofir Akunis, Israel’s consul general in New York, called it a “disgrace, shame, and insult to the memory of those who were murdered”.But the backlash did not come only from critics of Mamdani’s position on Israel.
Pro-Palestinian left’s critique of Mamdani
Some on the pro-Palestinian left also attacked the mayor, arguing that his stance did not go far enough. About 200 anti-Israel protesters gathered outside City Hall on Wednesday evening, with some accusing Mamdani of betraying the Palestinian cause.Several protesters told Politico they had voted for Mamdani but would not support him for re-election because they were unhappy that he had not fired NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch, whom they described as a Zionist, or stopped some New York synagogues from hosting events promoting land sales in the occupied West Bank.The protesters’ criticism reflected a broader frustration among some activists that Mamdani, despite his longstanding opposition to Israel’s policies, had not gone far enough in confronting Israel or supporting the Palestinian cause.At the same time, senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who is a close adviser to Mamdani, defended the mayor’s basic framing of the conflict. Sanders said Israel had the right to defend itself and target Hamas after the October 7 attack, but accused Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of waging “a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza”.Mamdani’s statement had drawn more than 11 million views on X by Wednesday eveningThe controversy reflects the difficult political position Mamdani has occupied throughout his rise to power. His strong criticism of Israel helped energise young and progressive voters during his mayoral campaign, while also making him a frequent target of Jewish groups, Israeli officials and more moderate Democrats.Mamdani has consistently rejected accusations of antisemitism, arguing that criticism of Israel and its government is distinct from hostility towards Jewish people.
