Mamdani Booed at Oct 7 Vigil After Slamming Israel — SkimNews
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- Zohran Mamdani was booed and heckled by protesters — some carrying Hamas and Hezbollah flags — at a Union Square vigil marking the third anniversary of October 7, with chants including 'Zohran you can't hide, we charge you with genocide' and 'Shame on you'
- Mamdani accused Israel of 'devastating, ongoing genocide' in Gaza, citing more than 74,000 Palestinians killed including 21,000 children, and more than 1,400 killed since what he called the 'so-called ceasefire'
- Mamdani also explicitly condemned the October 7 attack, stating Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251, and said US 'tax dollars fund these war crimes'
- ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt accused Mamdani of 'weaponising a day meant for mourning the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust' and said he did not once say 'Jews'
- Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch called the statement 'morally perverse,' Auschwitz Jewish Centre Foundation president Jack Simony said Jews deserve one day to mourn without grief being reframed, and AIPAC labeled it a 'disgraceful moral failure'
- Some protesters also heckled Mamdani for what they described as a 'betrayal of the Palestinian cause,' leaving the mayor facing criticism from both sides at the vigil
Why it matters: The episode crystallizes how the October 7 anniversary has become a political flashpoint in New York, with Jewish leaders accusing Mamdani of hijacking a day of mourning while Palestinian-cause protesters accused him of betrayal — leaving the mayor caught between two constituencies that both helped elect him.
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