Part of the menu of Ayat, a Middle Eastern restaurant, shows a map of Israel bereft of Israeli cities. (X Screenshot)
The chain has also voiced support for United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA), which has come under fire for links to Hamas.
By Shiryn Ghermezian, The Algemeiner
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani dined this week on the third anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel at a Palestinian restaurant chain that accuses Israel of genocide and has featured slogans that call for the destruction of the Jewish state.
The far-left democratic socialist mayor of New York was seen eating dinner at the Upper West Side restaurant Ayat Hinds Hall, located near Columbia University, on Wednesday.
Ayat is a Middle Eastern restaurant chain with several locations, and its website explains that the establishment where Mamdani dined is named in honor of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in the Gaza Strip in January 2024 during the Israel-Hamas war.
The name of the restaurant also references the anti-Israel student activists at Columbia University who broke into and occupied the school’s Hamilton Hall in April 2024 and renamed it “Hind’s Hall” in honor of Rajab.
Ayat and its owners, Palestinian husband and wife duo Abdul Elenani and Ayat Masoud, have accused Israel of occupation and genocide in Gaza, as well as the “cold blood” murder of children in the region.
The restaurant has shared posts on social media in support of anti-Israel performers Macklemore and Kehlani, children’s educator Miss Rachel, anti-Israel activists including Mahmoud Khalil, and many about Mamdani, who is friends with Elenani.
The chain has also voiced support for United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA), which has come under fire for links to Hamas.
According to the US government, the agency had more than 100 staffers who were affiliated with Hamas’s military wing and participated in the Palestinian terrorist group’s Oct. 7 atrocities.
One of the restaurant’s locations in Brooklyn, Ayat Ditmas Park, opened in December 2023 shortly after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel.
The Brooklyn restaurant was scurtinized for featuring a seafood section on its menu titled “From the River to the Sea.”
The slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” has been used by anti-Israel activists to call for the destruction the State of Israel, located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and for it to be replaced with “Palestine.”
The front of Ayat’s menu features the words “Down with the occupation.”
The Ditmas Park restaurant also has a mural that seemingly shows Palestinian children behind bars underneath the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem as Israeli soldiers point guns at a crying Palestinian woman, the New York Post previously reported.
Ayat’s “From the River to the Sea” menu section was described as being “openly genocidal” by social media users and deeply offensive by pro-Israel supporters.
Elenani previously said the slogan had been on Ayat’s menu for months before the Oct. 7 attacks and he believes it does not promote violence or antisemitism.
On Wednesday, the Ayat owner posted on Instagram a message regarding the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, in which he said that “every human life matters.”
At the same time, he accused Israel of “decades of occupation,” appearing to blame the Jewish state for the massacre by allegedly persecuting Palestinians.
“Before October 7, there were decades of occupation,” the post said.
“October 7 did not simply appear overnight or happen in a vacuum. None of that makes the killing of an innocent person acceptable. Not a Palestinian. Not a Muslim. Not a Jew. Not a Christian. Not a Hindu. Not a Buddhist. Not an atheist. Every life is sacred.”
“Aman is more than ‘security,’” he added, referencing an Arabic term.
“It is the feeling that you are safe. That your children can sleep without fear. That your home is your home. That you can walk outside without wondering what will happen to you. That your dignity, your family and your life are protected. When people are deprived of Aman generation after generation, we should never be surprised when a society produces anger and desperation which results in violence. That does not excuse crimes against civilians. It means that if we truly want violence to end, we have to understand what allows it to keep returning.”
Mamdani released a similar statement on Wednesday that appeared to blame Israel for Hamas’s invasion and accused Israel of orchestrating an “ongoing genocide” in Gaza.
The mayor attended a vigil on Wednesday night to honor the 1,200 innocent people murdered in the Oct. 7 attack and Palestinians killed in Gaza during the ensuing Israel-Hamas war.
Following US strikes, President Donald Trump has described Iran's military as 'totally destroyed.'
Investigators concluded that his extremist views developed over a decade and that he took inspiration…
The Americans believed an attack before the Israeli elections could benefit Netanyahu, while renewed US…
An Irish woman tried to confront passengers on a flight to Israel, accusing them of…
Republican challenger Rep. Mike Collins accused Ossoff of having aligned himself with anti-Israel figures, including…
The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute and has long disputed…