Mamdani condemns rhetoric of Palestinian author whose work his wife illustrated

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🗣 Mamdani condemns rhetoric of Palestinian author whose work his wife illustrated

• Mayor Zohran Mamdani has denounced online posts from Susan Abulhawa, a prominent Palestinian-American author who has described Israelis and Jews as “vampires” and “parasites,” after his wife was scrutinized for working with her.

• First Lady Rama Duwaji, an artist and pro-Palestinian advocate, provided an illustration for an essay that Abulhawa compiled as part of a collection from writers in Gaza, the conservative outlet The Washington Free Beacon reported on Thursday.

• Abulhawa has railed against Israel and Jews on her X account. One of her posts said that “Jewish supremacist vampires can buy up all the airways, they can manipulate all the algorithms, they can get us canceled from our jobs, but the world will not unsee their evil.” Another post said, “the whole world is zionist occupied, except Palestine,” referencing “these parasites on earth.”

• Abulhawa also said that “Israelis should not feel safe anywhere in the world, adding, “I also don’t give a shit if people collapse the distinction between zionists from jews.”

• Mamdani called Abulhawa’s rhetoric “patently unacceptable” and “reprehensible” at a press conference on Friday. He defended Duwaji by saying that she “was commissioned to illustrate an excerpt of a book by a third party” and “has never engaged with or met with the author, nor has she seen the tweets.” Mamdani also emphasized that Duwaji had no role in his administration.

• Those comments put Mamdani under fire from activists including Nerdeen Kiswani, co-founder of the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, who accused him of “throwing his own wife under the bus.”

• In a response video, Abulhawa said she could not be anti-Jewish because racism “can only flow from those who have power.” She also thanked commentators for “the outpouring of support following Mamdani’s unfortunate capitulation to zionist power in which he chose to disparage and repudiate me.”

• The dustup follows revelations earlier this month that Duwaji “liked” Instagram posts celebrating the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

• Amid the controversy, Mamdani will meet this afternoon with Orthodox Jewish leaders. Attendees will include Rabbi Moshe Indig, a Satmar sect leader who endorsed him for mayor, and his new antisemitism czar Phylisa Wisdom.

💡 Jack Schlossberg hits Shabbat services

• Jack Schlossberg, a frontrunner in the race to fill Jerry Nadler’s seat in the 12th Congressional District, hit Shabbat services at Park Avenue Synagogue on Friday night, according to a picture shared by Jacob Kornbluh that Schlossberg retweeted.

• Schlossberg, who describes himself as “100% half-Jewish,” has said he would make fast-tracking synagogue security funding a top priority if elected.

• Schlossberg’s grandfather Alfred Schlossberg was once the president of Park East Synagogue, an Orthodox congregation where an anti-Israel protest last fall triggered proposals of “buffer zone” legislation.

🚨 Antisemitic incidents pile up

• Assemblyman Micah Lasher shared a photo of graffiti that read “Kill a Jew go to heaven” on a stone in Manhattan’s Riverside Park on Sunday.

• “This is in the park where I raised my kids, in one of the most Jewish neighborhoods in the city,” said Lasher, who is running against Schlossberg to represent the 12th Congressional District that encompasses the park. He added that the NYPD is investigating the graffiti.

• Police are also investigating vandalism of a swastika on a vacant storefront in Brooklyn, reported AmNY.

• And three swastikas were discovered across schools in Queens over the last week, according to United Jewish Teachers president Moshe Spern.

🪧 Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march for Al-Quds Day

• Hundreds of demonstrators in Times Square on Friday rallied for Al-Quds Day, an annual pro-Palestinian event held at the end of Ramadan. Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem.

• Some protesters chanted “We support Hezbollah here” and “We support Hamas here.” They also pledged support for Iran and its regime, with one speaker saying, “This al-Quds Day holds a special significance as the United States and its puppet Zionist regime wage full-out war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. We proclaim our support for the Islamic Republic.”

📚 Cornell students vote to cut ties with Technion

• Cornell University’s Student Assembly voted on Thursday to cut ties with Technion, an Israeli university, reported The Cornell Daily Sun. Cornell and Technion run a joint technology-focused campus on Roosevelt Island.

• The assembly’s resolution said that Israeli companies “have publicly acknowledged testing weapons and military technologies — developed in part through Technion research — on captive Palestinian populations,” citing concerns about “complicity in genocide, apartheid, or grave human rights violations.”

• Mamdani said in 2020 that the Cornell-Technion partnership merited scrutiny through “the lens of BDS and how it applies here in New York City.”

• Resolutions by Cornell’s Student Assembly are brought to the university president, who decides whether to accept or reject them.

💡 Mahmood Mamdani takes on the Columbia protests

• Mahmood Mamdani, a leading scholar of colonialism at Columbia University whose fame has now been eclipsed by his son’s, is writing a new book about Israel, Palestinians and the campus protests that roiled Columbia in 2024.

• “I must be involved, whatever the cost,” the older Mamdani said to The New York Times. “It is part of my responsibility.”