A video has gone viral on X with the claim that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was seen dining at a Palestinian restaurant on the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Critics ripped the mayor for eating at the restaurant, identified on social media as Hinds Hall.
“@NYCMayor making quite a statement. Having dinner at the only Palestinian restaurant on the Upper West Side this October 7th,” an X user wrotesharing a video of Mamdani inside the restaurant, filmed from outside.
“Disgusting,” wrote Laura Loomerre-posting it.
“How Zohran Mamdani is commemorating October 7: eating at Hinds Hall, a Palestinian restaurant in NYC,” wrote journalist Olivia Reingold.
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Supporters, however, defended Mamdani.
“I think you’re confused, this is America and you’re allowed to go to Arab restaurants any day of the year. If you prefer apartheid then please consider Israel,” wrote a user.
Another said“Imagine getting mad at someone for eating sushi on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor”.
Zohran Mamdani’s statement on the October 7 anniversary
Mamdani released a statement on X on Wednesday, October 7, condemning the brutal Hamas attack.
“This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7. On that day, Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others. We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss,” he wrote.
Mamdani added, “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.”
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Mamdani further said that three years after the tragedy, “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.”
“To honor the dead, we must fight for a world in which every person can live with freedom, safety, and dignity,” he concluded.