Mayor Zohran Mamdani ignited intense anger from Jewish groups on Wednesday when he issued a statement marking the third anniversary of the deadly Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that focused largely on the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. The mayor posted a 211-word statement on social media that made reference to “the horrific war crimes” committed by Hamas and called the anniversary “profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers.” However, the bulk of the statement provided a detailed denunciation of Israel’s military actions in Gaza since the attacks, which Mr. Mamdani described as a “devastating, ongoing genocide.” He did not provide a similarly detailed account of the killings of Israelis and abductions of hostages.
“The suffering did not begin nor end that day,” he said, referring to Oct. 7, adding: “That suffering has intensified with every Israeli bomb dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting a residential building or journalist, and every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing.” The remarks by Mr. Mamdani, who has a fraught relationship with much of New York City’s Jewish leadership, were highly anticipated and closely scrutinized because this is the first anniversary of the attacks on Israel since he took office in January.
Some pro-Israel Jewish leaders, and the Israeli government, accused the mayor of minimizing Jewish and Israeli pain on a day of profound grief. Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, the president of the New York Board of Rabbis, said Mr. Mamdani’s statement was “morally perverse” and “like sticking a knife into the pain of the Jewish community in New York and in America.” Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said the mayor had been “callous toward Jewish pain.” But some progressive Jews defended the mayor. Sophie Ellman-Golan, a spokeswoman for Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, said his statement on Wednesday had “struck exactly the right tone.”
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing