Zahra Billoo, who has compared Hamas striking Israel to a ‘woman punching her rapist’, was hailed as a ‘treasure’ and a ‘gift…to Muslims worldwide’ by Ramzi Kassem
January 8, 2026 14:41
A top aide to New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, previously praised a prominent anti-Israel activist who once asked whether people would "hunt down and kill" IDF soldiers.
At an awards ceremony for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in December, during which he accepted the organisation’s “Defender Of The Truth” award, Ramzi Kassem, Mamdani's chief counsel, praised its executive director, Zahra Billoo, calling her a “gift” to “Muslims worldwide”.
At the ceremony, he said: “Alhamdulillah [praise be to God], there is no shortage of models for us in our own communities. We have sister Zahra Billoo, for example, who is a treasure, a gift – not just to the Muslims in the Bay Area, but to the Muslims nationwide, and even to the Muslims worldwide.
"What she has done here, to this CAIR chapter with her team, with all of you, is an example we can all follow as someone who has found an honest place to stand and has remained there, unwavering.”
But Billoo, a prominent activist in the American Muslim community, has an extensive history of comments expressing disdain for Zionism and justifying the actions of terrorist organisations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
Writing in 2009, the day Hezbollah fired several rockets into Israel, injuring five Israelis, she thanked God that the terror group has "the courage to do what the Arab governments won't”.
On another occasion, she tweeted: “Blaming Hamas for firing rockets at [apartheid] Israel is like blaming a woman for punching her rapist."
Often her tweets consist of comparisons between the IDF and Islamic State, claiming that the former is "more militant and murderous" than the notoriously brutal Islamist terror group.
She says that the Israeli military is a "genocidal terrorist organisation" and its soldiers are "literally just baby killers", and also questioned whether, since it is acceptable to call Isis followers "radical Islamic terrorists", it is also acceptable to call Israeli soldiers "radical Jewish terrorists".
In 2015, responding to Senator Ted Cruz saying the US would “hunt down” Isis fighters during a Republican primary debate, she asked: "Will we hunt down and kill the IDF terrorists?"
Billoo also frequently compares Israel’s actions to the Holocaust, tweeting "No need for a holocaust museum, seeing as Israel has taken it upon itself to recreate it," and "Israel ‘defending’ itself from Palestinians is analogous to Nazi Germany defending itself from Jewish uprising”.
It is unclear whether Kassem was aware of Billoo’s comments when he praised her in his speech.
The JC has contacted Billoo, Kassem, CAIR and City Hall for comment.
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