NYC Mayor Mamdani uses Oct. 7 anniversary to accuse Israel of genocide, sparking backlash

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani used the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack to accuse Israel of "war crimes" and an "ongoing genocide" in Gaza, setting off a furious backlash on the day Israelis were mourning their dead.

In his statement Wednesday, Mamdani devoted less than a quarter of the text to the "unthinkable loss" suffered when, in his words, "Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others." The rest indicted Israel: "The suffering did not begin nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli government's devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza," he said, adding that "three 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."

The response was swift. Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said Mamdani was hijacking the day of remembrance: "He's trying to hijack the day to talk about attacking Israel." Critics noted the mayor has already been accused of making Jewish New Yorkers feel unsafe with his sustained criticism of Israel.

The mayor's framing has a factual backdrop his critics do not dispute: Gaza's health authorities say more than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel's assault began, around half of them women and children according to the ministry, whose figures are considered generally reliable by UN agencies. What is disputed is the characterization. Israel says it is fighting Hamas, a group the United States designates as terrorist, which started the war with the October 7 massacre. Mamdani's statement treats Israel's campaign as criminal by design. That is the argument, stated plainly on both sides, and New Yorkers will decide what to make of a mayor who chose this day to make it.