Mamdani defends Oct. 7 statement that infuriated Jewish leaders, attendance at vigil

By Luke Tress

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Luke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attends a coexistence vigil marking the third anniversary of the October 7 massacre, October 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is questioned about his handling of the October 7, 2023, anniversary during a press conference.

Mamdani’s statement yesterday morning mourned the Israelis killed on October 7, but the bulk of the statement trained its fire on Israel, accusing the Jewish state of genocide, apartheid and war crimes.

Later in the day, anti-Zionist protesters raged at Mamdani while he attended a vigil for those killed on both sides of the conflict, calling him a “traitor.”

Asked about the turmoil from both sides, Mamdani says at the press conference, “I was proud to attend last night’s vigil, as I did last year, to listen to testimonies of family members of those who were killed.”

“As for those protesting me, I am the mayor of New York City and this is what I signed up for,” he says.

Mamdani says the anniversary marked three years since “unthinkable devastation” in the Hamas attack, and that “the Israeli government used and continues to use that day, those war crimes as a justification for an ongoing genocide.”

Mamdani accuses Israel of genocide six times during the press conference.

“There must be room to mourn the lives of the more than 1,100 Israelis that Hamas killed three years ago. There must be room to mourn the 74,000 Palestinians the Israeli government has killed since,” he says.

Asked why he has released videos from the City Hall press office for Nakba Day and other Palestinian advocacy, but not for October 7, Mamdani says, “It is critically important to be able to mourn for all of those who were killed and have been killed since, given that we know this is ongoing as opposed to something simply that was three years ago.”

He declines to say if he would change anything about his October 7 statement after the backlash.

“The statement, the attendance, it all speaks to a reckoning with horror and a horror that devastated the lives of New Yorkers three years ago and it also continues to devastate New Yorkers today,” he says.