Mayor Mamdani Draws Backlash

What happened

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani marked the third anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack with a statement mourning the victims and condemning the attack as a war crime. After acknowledging Israeli victims, he shifted to Gaza, calling Israel’s campaign an ongoing genocide and citing more than 74,000 Palestinians killed. Hamas-led attackers killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 people, triggering the Gaza war. Mamdani said honoring the dead requires opposing occupation and apartheid, seeking accountability and ending U.S. arms shipments. Jewish leaders and Israeli officials said the statement diminished a day of mourning. Mamdani was scheduled to attend an October 7 vigil that evening.

How each side covered it

From the left

Left-leaning outlets framed the anniversary as a reckoning with Palestinian suffering after October 7, while stressing the backlash to Mamdani’s emphasis. New York Magazine lingered on Gaza’s destruction and international condemnation of Israel’s campaign. The New York Times centered the anger from Jewish groups and Mamdani’s strained relationship with them. PBS NewsHour widened the lens to Benjamin Netanyahu’s responsibility for Israel’s security failure.

From the right

Right-leaning outlets treated the statements as a misuse of a mourning day, emphasizing sympathy for Hamas or hostility toward Israel. The Daily Mail focused on fury at mayors who pivoted from October 7 victims to criticism of Israel. Fox News highlighted Israel’s U.N. ambassador comparing that framing to mourning al-Qaeda on September 11. The Daily Wire cast October 7 as proof of a genocidal ideology threatening Western civilization.