Israel-bashing activist says Holocaust ‘lost its meaning’
An anti-Israel activist who collaborated with New York's first lady on an art project sparked outrage after mocking Jewish people for "whining" about the Holocaust on social media.
Susan Abulhawa unleashed the inflammatory remarks on social media platform X on July 31, responding to criticism that Mayor Zohran Mamdani had failed to appoint a single Jewish member to his 18-person judicial screening panel.
In her post, Abulhawa claimed that Europe’s Holocaust has been invoked so frequently it has lost significance globally. She accused Jewish voices of raising genocide concerns over every minor slight while allegedly supporting contemporary genocide themselves.
The activist went further, asserting that Jews are overrepresented across government, media, and cultural institutions, yet the community continues what she termed Holocaust-related complaints over the composition of a single judicial panel.
Abulhawa then issued what many interpreted as a veiled threat, suggesting that if moderate Jewish voices fail to control what she called extremists, negative consequences could follow for all involved.
Connection to City Hall
The controversy gains additional weight through Abulhawa’s recent professional connection to Rama Duwaji, Mamdani’s wife and the city’s first lady. Duwaji created artwork for an essay collection compiled by Abulhawa just months ago.
Specifically, Duwaji designed the lead graphic for an essay titled “A Trail of Soap” that Abulhawa published in Slow Factory’s Everything Is Political magazine.
Abulhawa has an established record of inflammatory anti-Jewish rhetoric, having previously characterized Jewish people as vampires, demons, and ghouls. She also publicly celebrated the October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel that killed over 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Social Media Backlash
Users on X quickly connected the dots between the activist’s latest outburst and her recent collaboration with the first lady.
One user noted the timing of the working relationship, pointing out that Mamdani’s wife had created artwork for Abulhawa mere months before the Holocaust comments.
Others questioned whether the mayor found such rhetoric acceptable, with one user directly asking New York City’s official account if it was normal for the mayor’s wife’s associate to make such statements.
Neither Duwaji nor Mamdani responded to requests for comment on the matter.
The incident adds to mounting scrutiny of Mamdani’s administration, particularly regarding his judicial screening panel that critics note contains zero Jewish representatives despite the community’s significant presence in New York City.
With information from New York Post
