Zohran Mamdani Dines in Palestinian Restaurant After Attending Oct. 7 Anniversary Vigil

(Screengrab via X)

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was spotted Wednesday dining at a Palestinian restaurant — named for a child killed in Gaza — right after attending a candlelit vigil marking the third anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel.

Mamdani visited Hinds Hall on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, a branch of Palestinian chain Ayat. The restaurant takes its name from Hind Rajab, a 5-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in January 2024 alongside her family by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) while fleeing Gaza City.

Before that, the mayor attended a vigil in Union Square, where he was heckled by pro-Palestinian demonstrators who called him a “coward” and “traitor” as he carried a candle and joined a silent march from City Hall honoring those killed in the Hamas attack.

Earlier Wednesday, Mamdani came under criticism when he released a statement describing Oct. 7 as “profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers” and Hamas’ attack as a “horrific war crime” before turning to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and what he called the “devastating, ongoing genocide.”

“The suffering did not begin nor end that day,” he wrote. “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.”

Mamdani made support for Palestinians a defining part of his political campaign for mayor and has repeatedly accused Israel of committing “genocide” while calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal” and threatening to have him arrested if he came to New York City. The mayor later acknowledged he did not have the power to enforce the arrest.

Last month, Netanyahu hit back in an address to the United Nations General Assembly, branding Mamdani “New York’s anti-Semitic mayor.” Mamdani responded by calling the Israeli leader “the architect of a genocide” and accusing him of trying to “distract from responsibility” by attacking him.

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