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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani dined Wednesday at a Palestinian restaurant whose sister location faced intense criticism in 2023 over menu language that critics called anti-Semitic.
Mamdani ate at Ayat Hinds Hall on the Upper West Side. The restaurant chain, which also operates a location in Brooklyn, drew sharp pushback for featuring a section on its menu titled “From the River to the Sea.”
The Anti-Defamation League defines the phrase as an implicit call for the eradication of Israel.
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A group of anti-Israel protesters targeted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, calling him a “traitor.” (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)
The menu’s front page reads: “Down with the occupation,” in English, Arabic, and Hebrew, The Times of Israel reported.
“Resilience,” “Freedom,” and “Save our children” are pictured in bold letters. The menu also includes a map that refers to the the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem and Israel as Palestine.
Following the 2023 controversy, critics accused the restaurant of being “opening genocidal” toward Jews.
Owner Abdul Elenani pushed back against accusations of antisemitism, noting the phrase had been on the menu months prior to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
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NYC Mayor Zorhan Mamdani ate at Ayat Hinds Hall, a Middle Eastern restaurant on the Upper West Side on Wednesday, on the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas. The restaurant came under fire in 2023 after a menu at one of its locations had a section titled: “From the River to the Sea,” a slogan frequently used by anti-Israel protesters. (Getty Images; Google Maps)
Elenani stated that he supports a two-state solution and condemns violence on both sides, according to the New York Post. In 2024, he organized a free Shabbat dinner for hundreds of guests, the Times report states.
Mamdani’s dinner came shortly after he faced backlash from pro-Palestinian demonstrators during a vigil marking the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks.
Demonstrators booed the mayor — a frequent critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza — and accused him of being a “traitor” who enables genocide.
“Zohran, what do you say? How many kids did you kill today?” protesters shouted, according to media reports. “700,000 dead. Mamdani, your hands are red!”
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Mamdani stood by his previous statements characterizing Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide while calling for universal empathy.
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“I believe that there must be room to mourn every single life,” Mamdani said. “There must be room to mourn the lives of the more than 1,100 that Hamas killed three years ago; there must be room to mourn the 74,000 Palestinians that the Israeli government has killed since.”