This post was originally published on this site.
—
On the anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 terror attack on Israel, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited a Palestinian-owned restaurant on the Upper West Side whose menu includes a provocative play on the slogan “from the river to the sea.”
A viral video showed the socialist mayor dining at Hinds Hall, a branch of the restaurant chain Ayat that has locations across America, which opened earlier this year. Bystanders caught Mamdani smiling in the establishment just hours after he was heckled by hundreds of radical protesters who disrupted a Union Square vigil marking the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, when terrorists invaded Israel and killed 1,200 people.
The restaurant hosting Mamdani claims it was named after a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Gaza. According to the Times of Israel, however, a more sinister political agenda is at play inside the restaurant. Hall’s menu includes a visual depiction of the Middle East that erases Israel from the map, labeling the entire territory — including Judea and Samaria, Gaza, Jerusalem, and all of Israel — as Palestine.
Credit: Luke Tress/Times of Israel
The menu’s front page, written in English, Arabic, and Hebrew and wrapped in the colors of the Palestinian flag, reads, “Down with the occupation.” The restaurant’s interior walls feature words including “Resilience,” “Freedom,” and “Save our children,” the Times of Israel reported. The menu also states, “Community dinners, charitable initiatives, and creating spaces where everyone feels welcome are central to who we are. At Ayat, the table is open to all.”
Hall’s seafood section is titled “From the rind to the seed,” feeding into the political slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The chant has become a hallmark of pro-Hamas demonstrations across the United States, especially on college campuses and in deep-blue cities. The phrase echoes the Arabic slogan “From the water to the water, Palestine is Arab,” according to the Times of Israel.
Mamdani’s visit came amid a chaotic scene that offered a striking glimpse of a fringe segment of his base turning on the socialist darling.
The vigil, organized by the Left-wing group Israelis for Peace NYC, was intended to commemorate the victims of October 7. Acting on brand, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters seized the opportunity to shout down speakers and disrupt the proceedings. A stone-faced Mamdani attended but did not speak.
Protesters shouted “Traitor!” at Mamdani, chanted “Death to the IDF!” and “Long live Hamas,” and also grabbed electric candles intended for the vigil and mockingly sang “Hava Nagila.” One protester shouted at organizers, “We sent your people to hell on October 7.”
Some protesters also chanted, “We don’t want no two state, we want 48,” and “Zohran, what do you say? How many boots did you lick today?” Video captured some of the confrontation, while other footage showed protesters displaying a portrait of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
When Mamdani eventually left the vigil, he was followed by protesters who continued screaming at him, with some calling him an “opportunist piece of sh*t.”
Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, has long called for Israel’s destruction and, in its 1988 charter, advocated violence against Jews.
“Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes,” the charter reads. It also quotes Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna’s declaration: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
“There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad,” the charter adds.
In his October 7 statement, Mamdani acknowledged that Hamas “killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others” and said, “We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss.” He then immediately turned to Israel’s conduct in Gaza, describing it as a “devastating, ongoing genocide” and accusing Israel of “occupation” and “apartheid.” He also wrote that “our tax dollars fund these war crimes.”
Among those criticizing Mamdani was journalist and political commentator Mark Halperin, who lives in New York City.
“If people wanna call that guy antisemitic now, it’s okay with me,” Halperin said. “And that’s a big change for me.”
