Rama Duwaji, the 28-year-old wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, reposted social media content that praised individuals involved in plane hijackings and bombings targeting Israel.
The posts span from 2015 to 2024 and include content glorifying members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Among the figures Duwaji elevated on her social media accounts: Leila Khaled, a PFLP leader who participated in two plane hijackings in 1969 and 1970, and Shadia Abu Ghazaleh, who took part in the bombing of an Israeli bus and led other attacks before being killed in 1968 when a bomb she was building exploded.
Neither Duwaji nor the mayor's office has publicly responded to the report.
The timeline stretches back over nearly a decade, Fox News reports. In March 2015, Duwaji reposted content on Tumblr praising Shadia Abu Ghazaleh. She was 17 at the time, which her defenders may cite as mitigating context. But the posts didn't stop at 17.
In July 2015, she posted criticism of the U.S. military presence abroad. In September 2017, she posted an image of Leila Khaled accompanied by a caption. Khaled is not an obscure historical figure whose significance might be misunderstood. She is one of the most recognizable faces of Palestinian political violence, a woman who hijacked commercial aircraft and once said:
"If it does good for my cause, I'll be happy to accept death."
That is the person Duwaji chose to feature on her social media. There is no ambiguity about who Khaled is or what she did.
The posts also included a captioned photo reportedly referencing a 1988 image of a Palestinian demonstrator sewing a flag. Taken individually, some of these posts might be dismissed as youthful political expression. Taken together, across years and platforms, they form a pattern.
The most incendiary detail in the report concerns October 7, 2023, the day Hamas launched its assault on Israel that left 1,200 Israelis dead. According to the report, Duwaji liked an Instagram post related to the attack.
Then, in February 2024, she allegedly liked a post about a New York Times investigation, though the specific content and context of that post remain unclear in the sourcing.
The October 7 detail matters most. Liking a post on the day of or in the immediate aftermath of the deadliest attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust is not a casual gesture. It is a signal. Social media engagement is not accidental for people in political orbits. Every like, repost, and follow carries weight, and the people closest to elected officials know this better than anyone.
Zohran Mamdani won the mayoralty as one of the most progressive figures in New York City politics. His ideological commitments were never a secret. But there is a difference between progressive politics and a household that, based on the available evidence, treats violent actors in the Palestinian militant movement as heroic figures worthy of public admiration.
New York City is home to one of the largest Jewish populations of any city on earth. It is also home to a thriving Arab and Muslim community. The mayor of that city carries a unique obligation to both. His wife's social media history, now a matter of public record, raises serious questions about the moral environment at the center of city government.
This is not about policing private political opinions. Duwaji posted this content publicly, on platforms designed for public consumption. She reposted praise of a woman who bombed a bus. She amplified the image of a woman who hijacked airplanes. She engaged with content on the day 1,200 people were massacred. These are choices made in the public square.
No statement from Duwaji. No statement from the mayor's office. In political communications, silence after a damaging report is almost always strategic. The calculation is simple: any response draws more attention, so say nothing and hope the news cycle moves on.
It might work. New York's media environment is relentless, and today's scandal is tomorrow's footnote. But the facts in this report are not complicated or easily reframed. Praising hijackers and bombers is not a matter of nuance. It doesn't require "context." The people Duwaji chose to celebrate killed and attempted to kill civilians. They did so deliberately. And she held them up as figures worth admiring.
This story fits a broader trend in progressive politics that should alarm every New Yorker, regardless of party. The far left has spent years laundering violent extremism through the language of liberation. Hijackers become "resistance fighters." Bombers become "martyrs." And anyone who objects is accused of suppressing free expression or smearing an entire ethnic group.
The framing is always the same:
It is a closed loop designed to make accountability impossible. And it has migrated from college campuses to city halls.
Mamdani's administration has offered nothing in response. The city's progressive establishment will likely rally to dismiss the report as a right-wing attack. But the posts exist. The timestamps exist. The names of the people Duwaji praised, Khaled and Abu Ghazaleh, are not inventions of conservative media. They are historical figures with well-documented records of political violence.
New York City deserves leadership that can distinguish between legitimate political advocacy and the celebration of terrorism. Right now, based on the public record, it is not clear that distinction exists inside Gracie Mansion.