New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday condemned online commentary from a prominent Palestinian writer and activist who labeled Jewish people “parasites” and “demons” whose book Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, provided an illustration for.

The mayor’s comments came a day after the Washington Free Beacon reported that Duwaji had supplied artwork for an essay by prominent author Susan Abulhawa in the collection Every Moment is a Life, a book Abulhawa also compiled. The outlet also found various tweets in which Abulhawa railed against Israelis and Jewish people more broadly, using terms such as “Jewish supremacist vampires,” “rootless soulless ghouls,” and “dual loyalty Zionists.”

In one post, Abulhawa quoted another X user who asked, ”is everyone Jewish or married to a Jew in the U.S. government?” to add her own antisemitic commentary.

“the whole world is zionist occupied, except Palestine. They’ve stolen our land and home and heritage, but we’ve at least kept our dignity, refusing to submit to these parasites on earth,” she wrote.

In his remarks on Friday, Mamdani asserted that his wife had “never engaged with nor met” Abulhawa, and received the contract work for the illustration via a third party. 

“I think that that rhetoric is patently unacceptable. I think it’s reprehensible,” the mayor said.

The mayor also again stressed that his wife “doesn’t have a role” in his administration, though in a January interview he called her the “best advocate” for influencing his policy decisions. 

Jewish Insider previously reported that Duwaji had liked multiple online posts expressly supporting the Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

Abulhawa subsequently posted on social media that she had received “outpouring of support following Mamdani’s unfortunate capitulation to zionist power.”

“Let’s keep our focus on the crimes and victims of Jewish supremacist zionist ghouls, vampires, parasites, etc.,” she wrote unrepentantly on X, promising further commentary in the near future.