Why 9/11 families furiously want to exclude NYC Mayor Mamdani from Ground Zero ceremony

 

Some 9/11 families are planning to ignore New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani if he attends this year’s Ground Zero ceremony. A petition with over 98,000 signatures calls for his exclusion, while other families slam it as Islamophobic.

Some relatives of the victims who died on September 11 say they don’t want New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani at this year’s memorial ceremony at Ground Zero, and will even turn away from him if he does attend.

A petition to keep the mayor away has been started by Giovanni Galante, whose wife Grace died in the attacks when she was 29.

The petition has more than 98,000 signatures so far, and organizers plan to hand-deliver it to City Hall on September 8.

“No one’s going to be there saying, ‘You can’t come in,'” Galante told the Post. “I know he likes to come in your face and try to say hello and shake your hand, but I would definitely ignore him.”

What is the petition actually about?

The petition itself, addressed as a letter from 9/11 family members, lays out specific concerns about Mamdani attending.

According to the petition, Mamdani would have failed to clearly condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” and cites his own acknowledgment that his father, who wrote a book after 9/11 arguing that suicide bombers should be “understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism,” shaped his views.

The letter also notes Mamdani’s past praise for Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who was named as an alleged co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

It also mentions Mamdani’s appointment of Ramzi Kassem as the city’s chief counsel. Kassem is a lawyer who has previously represented a man convicted in an al-Qaeda bombing plot.

Other family members strongly disagree, calling the petition “Islamophobic”

Not every 9/11 family member shares these views, however.

Among those disagreeing is Elizabeth Miller, whose father was killed in the attacks. She serves as project director of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and told CBS earlier this month that the mayor should be allowed to attend.

“Mayor Mamdani has assured 9/11 families that he wants to be there to honor our loved ones, and I think he should be allowed to do that,” she said.

Her organization went even further in a public statement, saying: “We strongly condemn the anti-American accusations and Islamophobic sentiment underlying the effort seeking to prevent him from being at Ground Zero. For decades, we have firmly maintained that Ground Zero is sacred space and should never be used as a platform for political speech or partisan politics. Ground Zero remains a burial ground.”

City Council Speaker Julie Menin has also pushed back, going as far as calling the effort to exclude Mamdani “absolutely inappropriate,” and pointed to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s longstanding rule against political speeches at the ceremony.

Other families are frustrated regardless of outcome

Some family members expect Mamdani to attend no matter what. Angie Pesce, whose 34-year-old brother Danny died in the north tower, told the Post she believes the mayor “will show up to be spiteful.”

Maureen Santora, 81, whose firefighter son Christophe died in the south tower, said she hopes he stays silent if he does come. “I just hope that he doesn’t say a single word because most of us will be very upset,” she said.

Jeanette Puccio-Pick, who lost her father in the south tower when she was 9, said her focus is elsewhere entirely.

“If the mayor shows up, that’s his prerogative. I’m there to honor my father,” she said. “I don’t really want any politicians there, unless they’re there in a civilian capacity. But with politicians, it’s always a photo-op.”

Mamdani’s response so to the petition

Mamdani signed two executive orders on Friday, one designating September 11 as an official Day of Remembrance and Service, and one overhauling the city’s emergency preparedness planning for the first time since 2007. 

The executive orders did little to soften the families behind the petition. Councilwoman Joann Ariola, who is helping lead the petition effort, dismissed the orders as insufficient, pointing to Mamdani’s retention of Kassem as chief counsel.

Mamdani made a statement in July, in which he said he would “proudly honor the families, the survivors, the first responders forever impacted by that horrific terror attack by standing alongside them.”