A fresh controversy erupted at City Hall Friday after a report claimed the wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani had engaged with social media posts that appeared to celebrate Hamas’s brutal October 7 terror assault on Israel — an attack that left roughly 1,200 people dead, the vast majority civilians.
The explosive claim quickly followed Mamdani into a press conference, where reporters pressed the mayor to respond.
New York Daily News City Hall reporter Josie Stratman confronted Mamdani about the allegations, referencing a report published by Jewish Insider that said his wife, Rama Duwaji, had liked several Instagram posts connected to the attack.
Stratman later summarized the exchange on social media, writing: “Asked about his wife liking a pro-Oct 7 post, Mayor Mamdani replies essentially that his wife doesn’t speak for him.”
When pressed directly, the mayor leaned heavily on distancing himself from his spouse’s online activity. “My wife is the love of my life, and she’s also a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my City Hall,” Mamdani said.
The original report came from Jewish Insider journalist Will Bredderman, who revealed that Duwaji had liked multiple posts that appeared to frame the October 7 attack in sympathetic or celebratory terms. One Instagram post highlighted in the report featured images taken from livestream footage recorded by participants in the assault.
According to the description, the first image showed a bulldozer used by Hamas militants to smash through the barrier separating Gaza from Israel. The second image displayed attackers riding in a captured Israel Defense Forces vehicle. Text layered over the images carried highly charged political slogans:
On the bulldozer image appeared the phrase:
“Breaking the walls of apartheid and military occupation.”
The second image carried the message:
“Resisting apartheid since 1948.”
Both images also included the slogan:
“Systemic change for collective liberation.”
The report noted that it remains unclear when Duwaji liked the posts or whether the interactions occurred shortly after the October 7 attack or at some later time.
When asked about the matter, Duwaji’s office declined to comment on the report entirely. Meanwhile, Mamdani’s spokesman also refused to address the specifics of Duwaji’s Instagram activity. Instead, the mayor’s office emphasized Mamdani’s own stance regarding Hamas and the deadly attack. In a statement provided to Jewish Insider, the spokesman said:
“Mayor Mamdani has been clear and consistent: Hamas is a terrorist organization, October 7th was a horrific war crime, and he has condemned that violence unequivocally.”
Even with the mayor’s attempt to draw a bright line between his own views and those of his spouse, the controversy has begun to ripple through political circles.
Critics argue that the issue raises serious questions about the political environment surrounding the mayor’s inner circle, particularly at a time when tensions over the Israel–Hamas war remain deeply divisive in New York City.
Supporters of the mayor, meanwhile, insist the focus on Duwaji’s social media activity is an attempt to manufacture a political scandal where none exists.
