NYC Mayor Mamdani Faces Backlash Over Nakba Day Social Media Post

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has drawn sharp criticism from Jewish leaders and elected officials for a social media post commemorating Nakba Day, which marks the displacement of Palestinians during the establishment of Israel. The controversy centers on a video produced by the mayor’s office and shared on Friday featuring a Palestinian New Yorker recounting her family’s experience.

The video includes an interview with Inea Bushnaq, who describes fleeing her home as a child during the 1948 war. The mayor’s post described Nakba Day as an annual remembrance of the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949. It stated that militias destroyed hundreds of Palestinian villages and cities.

Jewish organizations and several lawmakers condemned the presentation as one-sided historical revisionism that omits key context. Critics argued the video ignored the rejection of the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan by Arab leaders, the subsequent invasion by five Arab armies aiming to destroy the newly declared State of Israel, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab countries in the following years.

Brooke Goldstein, executive director of The...