But Mamdani’s remarks quickly shifted away from the October 7 massacre and toward Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza.
The mayor accused the Israeli government of carrying out genocide and war crimes, while also condemning what he described as occupation and apartheid. He further argued that American taxpayers bear responsibility because the federal government continues to provide Israel with military assistance.
“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.”
Mamdani then broadened his criticism, saying the anniversary should serve as a reminder that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be separated from what he characterized as decades of occupation.
“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.”
He concluded with a call for a future in which people on both sides could live securely.
“To honor the dead, we must fight for a world in which every person can live with freedom, safety, and dignity.”
The statement immediately drew criticism from the Anti-Defamation League, whose CEO Jonathan Greenblatt accused Mamdani of failing to adequately center the Jewish victims of the October 7 massacre.
“Mayor Mamdani, not once do you say ‘Jews.’ On Oct. 7, Hamas-led attackers murdered civilians, committed sexual violence, mutilated bodies and took hostages. You are weaponizing a day meant for mourning the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust to recycle your usual antizionist talking points. The city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel deserves a mayor who can honor the dead without exploiting them,” Greenblatt posted on social media.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also emphasized the significance of October 7 itself, arguing that the attack should not be overshadowed by broader political arguments over the war.
“I think that attack will go down in history as one of the most brutal, abhorrent incidences in the history of the region and certainly the world,” Hochul said. “So that was an unprovoked attacked on innocent civilians, many of whom were young people dancing at a music festival, or parents stripped from their kids. So I think that that day speaks for itself.”
Hochul specifically pointed to New York families who have endured years of uncertainty and grief following the attacks.
“I don’t think anything should diminish from this day, this three-year occurrence, because there are a lot of New York families like Omer Neutra’s parents from Long Island who are having their wounds reopened as they think about their son kidnapped, that they’ve been praying for for hundreds of days – I met with them many times- only to find out he’d actually been lost on that first day. So it is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions on so many levels,” Hochul said.
The controversy is unlikely to be the last surrounding Mamdani’s approach to Israel and the Gaza war.
The New York mayor has established himself as one of the most vocal critics of Israel among prominent Democratic politicians and has repeatedly characterized Israel’s military operations in Gaza as genocide. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also publicly criticized Mamdani’s rhetoric, while Jewish organizations have repeatedly challenged the mayor over his comments about Israel.
At the center of the dispute is a fundamental disagreement over how October 7 should be remembered.
Critics of Mamdani argue that the anniversary should primarily commemorate the victims of the Hamas attack, including civilians who were killed, sexually assaulted, or taken hostage. Mamdani, meanwhile, has sought to connect remembrance of the massacre with the continuing suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
The death toll cited by Mamdani comes from Palestinian health authorities in Gaza. Those figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, an important limitation when evaluating casualty estimates from the conflict.
Three years after October 7, the political divide surrounding the war remains deeply entrenched—and Mamdani’s latest statement shows that the debate is still capable of producing fierce controversy in America’s largest city.
