As Antisemitism Rises at New York, Israel’s Consul Invites Mamdani To Screening of October 7 ‘Horror Movie’

Finding itself on the blunt end of public sentiment three years after Hamas’s attacks on Israel, the Jewish state is hoping to remind people — starting with New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani — of the horrors of October 7, 2023.In a letter delivered Monday, the Consul General of Israel at New York, Ofir Akunis, invited the mayor to witness scenes from the terror group’s own perspective at a screening of a “47-minute horror movie” produced by the Israeli Defense Forces from footage collected by Hamas cameras. The film, called “Bearing Witness to the October 7 Massacre,” was released in October 2025 by the directors of 2021’s “Hope in the Holy Land” to convey the depravity of the terror attacks. While the political machine backing the mayor and other ascendant young leftist politicians, Democratic Socialists of America, has made support for Palestinian independence a core tenet of its organizing activity, local youth chapters of the DSA planned an anti-Israel “resistance rally” outside City Hall on Wednesday to mark the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks. Participating chapters include Hunter College, City College of New York, CUNY Lehman, and The New School.Mr. Akunis wrote in his invitation to Mr. Mamdani that it is all the more important for the mayor to view the film in light of his “rhetoric against the State of Israel.” He added that Mr. Mamdani’s hostility toward Israel is the “fundamental reason for the rise in antisemitism in New York City.” “Perhaps after watching this film you will truly understand why the Jewish state is so important and why we will continue to defend ourselves, no matter against whom, and no matter when,” he wrote.Mr. Akunis told The New York Sun that Jews and Israelis in the city are concerned for their safety as they prepare to mark the solemn anniversary, “but it will not prevent us from commemorating this horrific massacre.”“We will not forget and we will not forgive, and we will not allow anyone to erase the memory of what happened!” the consul general said in a statement.Mr. Mamdani has been locked in a highly public feud with Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, since he campaigned on a promise to have the prime minister arrested on an International Criminal Court warrant if he visited New York. Failing that jurisdictional authority, the mayor has settled for proclaiming Mr. Netanyahu “the architect of a horrific genocide” against Palestinians in the three years that followed the Hamas-orchestrated attacks.“Maybe, if he will come, he will stop spreading his hate and blood libels against the state of Israel,” Mr. Akunis said in a speech Monday.The mayor’s office did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment Tuesday. Mr. Mamdani has previously refused to condemn slogans including, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “Globalize the intifada,” which supporters of Israel hear as calling for elimination of the world’s sole Jewish state. Even the mayor’s efforts to affirm Jewish New Yorkers as an important part of the city have run aground on his opposition to Israel. Earlier this month the mayor’s office released an action plan to combat antisemitism that explicitly declined to define the term and omitted any mention of anti-Zionism as an interrelated phenomenon, drawing criticism from national Jewish advocacy groups and rabbis of New York’s largest synagogues.

As Antisemitism Rises at New York, Israel’s Consul Invites Mamdani To Screening of October 7 ‘Horror Movie’

As Antisemitism Rises at New York, Israel’s Consul Invites Mamdani To Screening of October 7 ‘Horror Movie’

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