Israel moves to ban Rama Duwaji, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife

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🇮🇱 Israel moves to ban Mamdani’s wife

• Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism has recommended blacklisting Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, from entering the country over her pro-Palestinian activity on social media.

• Ministry Director General Avi Cohen-Scali said in a request to the Interior Ministry on Thursday that Duwaji’s use of the words “genocide,” “occupation” and “ethnic cleansing” about Israel merited a ban, reported Haaretz.

• The statement also said that Duwaji’s posts over the years reflected a pattern of anti-Israel messaging. The ministry cited an illustration expressing solidarity with Palestinians with the text “ethnic cleansing, plain and simple,” an animation of a Palestinian woman buried under rubble, and posts questioning reports of Israeli women being raped by Hamas as a “mass hoax.”

• Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli added, “The unrestrained remarks of New York’s mayor’s wife, denying the October 7 massacre and rapes, are unacceptable.”

• Duwaji, an artist and pro-Palestinian advocate, has not expressed interest in visiting Israel. Mamdani refused to say he would visit Israel during his campaign, saying that “one need not visit Israel to stand up for Jewish New Yorkers” and that his support for boycotting Israel may prohibit him from entering even if he wanted to.

• Duwaji has been repeatedly scrutinized in recent weeks over her engagement with social media posts that celebrated Oct. 7 and Palestinian militants, along with having providing illustrations for Susan Abulhawa, a Palestinian-American author who called Israelis and Jews “vampires,” “parasites” and “cockroaches” online. Mamdani has said his wife is “a private person” with no role in his administration.

🚨 Israel-related antisemitism cases reach sentencings

• Several Israel-related antisemitism incidents in the city from 2023 and 2024 have recently been resolved, reported The Times of Israel.

• Myles Utz, who was charged with a hate crime for throwing glass bottles at a Jewish man and spitting at another while shouting, “Free Palestine,” was sentenced to three years of probation, $375 in fees and virtual counseling this month.

• Stephanie Gonzalez and Mehwish Omer have pleaded guilty to attacking a Jewish woman on the Upper West Side after tearing down photos of Israeli hostages. A plea deal requires them to attend a counseling program and a guided tour of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, do 30 hours of community service at a Jewish organization and each pay $722 to the victim.

• Tyler Pelton, charged with vandalizing the homes of Jewish Brooklyn Museum board members with antisemitic graffiti, will be sentenced this week.

🫓 Passover prep gets underway for city officials

A 91-year-old Holocaust survivor thanks Julie Menin for standing up to antisemitism. (David G. Greenfield)

• Ahead of Passover, New York City Council Julie Menin attended a mock seder and food distribution hosted by the Met Council at a senior residence on Wednesday.

• “What made it especially moving was seeing senior residents, including Holocaust survivors, have the chance to connect with the first Jewish speaker of the New York City Council,” Met Council CEO David Greenfield told the Jewish News Syndicate.

• The Met Council plans to distribute Passover food to more than 350,000 Jewish New Yorkers and surge over $6 million worth of food to pantries.

• Meanwhile, Mamdani met on Thursday with Orthodox businessman Dov Bleich, who presented him with a rare Haggadah from his personal collection dated to 1863 New York. Bleich said that Mamdani was “visibly moved” by the Haggadah, according to The Forward’s Jacob Kornbluh.

🎭 ‘The Land’ play looks at roots of Israeli-Palestinian conflict

• A reading of “The Land,” a play that examines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of a Palestinian and an Israeli woman, will premiere at The Actors Temple on Monday, March 23.