Mamdani stands silent at Union Square Oct. 7 vigil as Menin draws an ovation
Protesters chanted through the ceremony marking three years since the Hamas attack, while Council Speaker Julie Menin's remarks about the victims earned a standing ovation.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood silently at a Union Square vigil Wednesday night on the third anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Demonstrators chanted through the ceremony and some in the crowd booed him. Earlier that day, a room stood to applaud City Council Speaker Julie Menin after she urged that the anniversary focus on the victims.
Union Square vigil held under heavy police presence
Dozens of police vehicles surrounded the park, and officers from the NYPD’s counterterrorism unit were among those deployed. Demonstrators carried Israeli and Palestinian flags and signs. Their chanting continued through the speeches and at times made speakers at the microphone hard to hear. The mayor did not address the crowd, and the vigil ended with a moment of meditation.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams was there, as was Brad Lander, the city’s former comptroller. “I hear and I receive the anger, all of the hurt, all of the trauma that is out here,” Williams said as drums sounded nearby.
Laura Liben, a Jewish resident of the Upper West Side who arrived at about 6:30 p.m., said she was surprised by the pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered around the vigil and felt they had taken over the event in a hostile way.
Mamdani’s Oct. 7 statement and Menin’s remarks
In a written statement Wednesday, Mamdani acknowledged the loss of life in the Hamas attack but devoted most of it to criticism of Israel, accusing its government of genocide in Gaza and condemning strikes on ambulances, homes and journalists and the blocking of food aid at border crossings.
Menin, the city’s first Jewish council speaker, told a full room that the day should honor the 1,200 people killed by Hamas. “Today should be a day about only one thing,” she said, calling it a very difficult day for the Jewish community.
The Anti-Defamation League’s New York and New Jersey office said the mayor used the anniversary to level political charges against Israel instead of mourning with Jewish constituents, and ADL chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt faulted the statement for never mentioning Jews. The group has also criticized the administration’s new plan against antisemitic hate crimes, which does not adopt a formal definition of antisemitism.
According to the NYPD, antisemitic hate crimes went up 9% from January through August versus the same months a year earlier. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Jewish New Yorkers were the targets in over half of the city’s confirmed hate crimes during that span. Hamas killed about 1,200 people in the attack and took roughly 250 hostages. Gaza’s health ministry says the war that followed has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians.
