New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday shrugged off the protest — which featured jeers of “traitor” at the democratic socialist leader, and chants of “long live Hamas” — that sought to drown out an event he attended the night prior memorializing the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.

The mayor, who rose to power as a fierce critic of the Jewish state, declined at a press conference to denounce or even meaningfully engage with the presence of hecklers who massed in Union Square Wednesday night against a vigil organized by the liberal group Israelis for Peace. Protesters used drums and megaphones to berate the mayor and drown out remarks from speakers.

Mamdani’s statement earlier on Wednesday, which devoted greater space to the death toll in the Gaza Strip than to the atrocities on Oct. 7 that triggered Israeli military action, infuriated mainstream Jewish leaders and drew bipartisan rebuke. 

Even so, the statement prompted a wave of far-left outrage online for its condemnation of Hamas, as did his participation in the commemoration.

“I was proud to attend last night’s vigil, as I did last year, to listen to testimonies from family members of those who were killed on Oct. 7, and those who’ve been killed in the three years since, and all of whom united in a vision for peace and an end to the genocide in Gaza,” Mamdani told journalists after an unrelated event in Brooklyn. “As for those protesting me, I am the mayor of New York City, and this is what I signed up for.”

Mamdani shrugged off protests — featuring jeers of “traitor” and chants of “long live Hamas” — that sought to drown out an event he attended last night memorializing the victims of Oct. 7. Read more: https://t.co/IsxYgVBc5N https://t.co/ynDyWiz2q8

— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) October 8, 2026

The mayor remained noncommittal when reporters pressed about city approval for a proposed memorial to the nearly 1,200 killed and 251 taken hostage during the assault, and would not answer why he did not dedicate a polished video on official city channels to the tragedy, as he has repeatedly done for the Palestinian cause. He also did not respond to a question about whether he considered the hecklers to be good-faith actors.

“I think that the statement, the attendance, the meeting, it all speaks to a reckoning with horror and a horror that devastated the lives of New Yorkers three years ago, and it also continues to devastate New Yorkers today,” he said.