Late last week, we learned that Rama Duwaji, the wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, had illustrated a book for the Palestinian-American author and journalist Susan Abulhawa, a woman with a distinctly troubling record of antisemitism, including describing Jews as "cockroaches," "rootless parasites," and "rabid demons."
This revelation arrived hot on the heels of the earlier discovery that Duwaji had liked dozens of social media posts celebrating the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. Once again, Mamdani stepped forward to run interference for his wife, insisting that she had secured the freelance illustrating job through a third party and had no idea it was for Abulhawa. He described Abulhawa's remarks as "reprehensible," which, one notes, fits neatly with Mamdani's apparent habit of throwing friends and allies under the bus when the moment requires it.
And we say "friends and allies" advisedly, because it turns out the Mamdani family has rather more substantial ties to Abulhawa, and to many like her, than the mayor would have us believe. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s family has crossed paths with the anti-Israel activist who called Jews “cockroaches” and “vampires,” despite his attempts to distance himself from her.
Susan Abulhawa, now 55, sits on the Advisory Policy Council of the Gaza Tribunal alongside Mamdani’s father, the Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani. The group, a select body of just 29 members, was set up in London in 2024 and presents itself as an independent “people’s tribunal” dedicated to gathering evidence against Israel in Gaza. Among its other prominent figures is the British Member of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn.
But the connections run deeper still. Abulhawa was a featured speaker at Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies, an institution with which Mamdani Sr., a long-time professor in the Department of Anthropology, has been closely associated, his name appearing in a bio on their website.
Moreover, Abulhawa was among the prominent signatories to a 2018 open letter addressed to members of the Saudi royal family, urging them to release the professor and women’s rights activist Hatoon al-Fassi. Mamdani’s filmmaker mother, Mira Nair, as well as his father, were also among those who signed.
This is not an isolated incident but part of a clear pattern: Mamdani repeatedly finds himself acquainted with deeply controversial figures and then denies, or at least minimizes, the connections. Last fall, we learned that his family had ties to an Ugandan politician who wished to imprison gays for life, despite his protestations of ignorance.
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When one marries, one generally ensures compatibility on the big questions. Supporting Islamic terrorism, or at the very least declining to recoil from those who do, appears to be one of those big questions in the Mamdani marriage.
New Yorkers were warned. They chose to ignore the warnings.
We are sure, of course, that it is all just a coincidence.
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When one marries, one generally ensures compatibility on the big questions. Supporting Islamic terrorism, or at the very least declining to recoil from those who do, appears to be one of those big questions in the Mamdani marriage.
New Yorkers were warned. They chose to ignore the warnings.
We are sure, of course, that it is all just a coincidence.


