New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has condemned “apartheid” and American tax dollars funding “war crimes” in his statement marking the third anniversary of October 7.
Posting on social media on Wednesday, he wrote: “This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers.
“It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7. On that day, Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others. We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbours who still carry that unthinkable loss.”
However, he then turned to condemnation of Israel, adding: “The suffering did not begin nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which it has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians – including more than 21,000 children.
“Even since the so-called ceasefire, more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed.
“That suffering has intensified with every Israeli bomb dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting a residential building or journalist, and every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing.
“Many New Yorkers are reckoning with this unbearable grief, and we mourn alongside them – all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes.
“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.
“To honour the dead, we must fight for a world in which every person can live with freedom, safety, and dignity.”
His statement came as New York, which has the largest Jewish population of any city outside of Israel, marked the third anniversary of October 7, with numerous Jewish communities commemorating those killed.
Mamdani, who became mayor in January this year, has been a prominent and controversial critic of Israel, drawing strong opposition from Jewish and pro-Israel groups over his positions on Zionism.
He has supported the BDS movement, described Israel as an apartheid state, opposed defining Israel as a specifically Jewish state, and faced criticism for refusing during much of his mayoral campaign, to condemn the phrase “globalise the intifada”.
But he has also faced protests and criticism from more hard-line antizionist and pro-Palestinian activists, who argue that he has not gone far enough in condemning Israel.
The Young Democratic Socialists America, the student offshoot of the left-wing faction with which Mamdani is affiliated, organised a protest on the anniversary itself against the mayor for, in their word, “repeatedly capitulating to Zionist pressure”.
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