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No, Mayor Mamdani, the First Lady of NYC is not a private role

Does it matter that the mayor’s wife Rama Duwaji holds abhorrent, disgusting opinions about a mass slaughter that occurred in Israel on Oct. 7? Her husband, Mayor Mamdani doesn’t think so.

Babies were butchered. Teenagers mowed down. Elderly were kidnapped from their homes. It was all captured on video and gleefully streamed by the attackers for the world to see. They posted videos on the Facebook pages of their victims. They wanted everyone to know exactly what they did. There was no confusion about what Duwaji was liking. She knew exactly. 

A first lady of New York City sets the tone for the administration and the tone for this one is already openly divisive. 

The last first lady at Gracie Mansion, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s wife Chirlane McCray, famously mishandled close to $1 billion on her “Thrive” program initiative. McCray was largely seen as “co-mayor” in that administration.

According to Mamdani, Duwaji isn’t likely to be that. But the mayor’s wife having deeply hateful and sinister views still matters. 

Duwaji liked an Instagram post about a “mass rape hoax” that was “fabricated” by The New York Times, a newspaper not considered “pro-Israel” whatsoever. What does this mean for rape victims in the city her husband governs?

Is there a litmus test for the ones that the mayor and his family support that excludes those with a positive view of Israel? There is a trickle down effect from leaders and the mayor’s wife sending the message that she opposes victims of sex crimes, and considers them liars, if they don’t share her ideology will give permission to doctors and hospital staff to do the same. 

A husband doesn’t bear responsibility for his wife’s opinions, but it’s also not a stretch to think that Zohran Mamdani fully shares his wife’s ideas, if not her social media habits.

Just a few days ago, the Mamdanis hosted Hamas-supporter Mahmoud Khalil at Gracie Mansion. Khalil was one of the founders of the encampments at Columbia University which targeted and harassed Jewish students.

Last week, Mamdani was introduced at a Staten Island mosque by Abdullah Akl, co-director of public affairs and civic engagement with the Muslim American Society of New York, who has been on video chanting, “Strike, strike Tel Aviv.” 

There isn’t some great mystery about what they believe. The mayor of the city with the largest population of Jews in America ran a campaign specifically targeting the only Jewish country as genocidal and an apartheid state.

But posts his wife liked go beyond even that. Her celebration of mass murder betrays an open hatred that Mamdani hasn’t shown. How can Jewish New Yorkers trust their mayor to be on their side, no matter the issue, when he sleeps next to a woman who liked a post referring to Oct. 7 as a “mass resistance”? On that day Shiri Bibas and her two small children Ariel and Kfir were kidnapped at gunpoint. They were brutally murdered by Palestinians and never returned home. Is that the resistance that is supported inside Gracie Mansion?

Was it that Duwaji was so deeply concerned for the Palestinian people? Well, no. On Oct. 9, before any Israeli ground action began in Gaza, Duwaji had already liked a post captioned “ISRAEL IS COMMITTING A MASS GENOCIDE AS WE TYPE THIS.” The script had been written and just needed useful fools in the west to follow it. Duwaji obliged. 

People like Duwaji, who imagine they are friends to the Palestinian people, are ultimately their enemy. The same Oct. 7 that Duwaji celebrated was terrible for Israelis, yes, but also ended up being a disaster for the people in Gaza she claims to care about.

Did Duwaji imagine that her “likes” on social media posts would cower Israel into not responding to their people being brutally massacred at a music festival and at home in their pajamas? Was she so ensconced in her echo chamber that she though her western privilege and her social media button clicking would stop retaliation to children being kidnapped and murdered?

Friends to Palestinians would tell them to accept the existence of Israel and, like the liberals of old used to say, co-exist. But no one liking posts about mass murder is going to do that. New Yorkers need realism just the same to improve a city that has been in decline. They can’t count on this mayor or his wife to give them that.

Duwaji liked these posts before she was the wife of the mayor of the City of New York. Surely she will be more careful in the future not to expose her support for wanton slaughter. Her husband is making excuses for her but there are none. New Yorkers have gotten a peak into what the mayor’s wife really believed when she thought no one else was watching. 

Karol Markowicz is the host of “The Karol Markowicz Show” and “Normally” podcasts.

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