Palestinian author Susan Abulhawa, who praised Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack and described Jewish Israelis as ‘rootless soulless ghouls’ and ‘Jewish supremacist vampires,’ had an essay illustrated by Rama Duwaji.
The essay by Abulhawa was illustrated by Rama Duwaji, New York City’s first lady
, the wife of Mayor
Zohran Mamdani, and was published in the Slow Factory’s latest issue of “Everything Is Political” magazine.
A spokeswoman for Mamdani said Duwaji was commissioned by an outside publisher as a freelance illustrator and “has never engaged with or met Susan Abulhawa, nor had she seen the tweets in question.”
Abulhawa has a history of inflammatory rhetoric against Israel and Jewish people, supporting the Hamas attack and using anti-Semitic language in her social media posts and writings.
The collaboration between Duwaji and Abulhawa sparked immediate backlash.
“Whether or not Israel indeed knew of the plans in advance, those few freedom fighters inspired not only the whole of Palestine, but the oppressed masses worldwide, to imagine what freedom looks like; what resistance is possible; and what life is attainable,” Abulhawa wrote in a piece for “The Electronic Intifada.”
“It was always about stealing more of our land. Nothing is ever enough for these rootless, soulless ghouls,” she wrote in a Dec. 22, X post discussing Israeli settlements.
Additional social media posts from Abulhawa have drawn criticism.
Abulhawa railed against Israelis and Jewish people more broadly, using terms such as “Jewish supremacist vampires,” “rootless soulless ghouls,” and “dual loyalty Zionists.”
In one post, she wrote “the whole world is zionist occupied, except Palestine. They’ve stolen our land and home and heritage, but we’ve at least kept our dignity, refusing to submit to these parasites on earth.”
Mayor Mamdani responded to the controversy on March 14.
Mamdani asserted that his wife had “never engaged with nor met” Abulhawa, and received the contract work for the illustration via a third party.
Abulhawa doubled down after the mayor’s statement.
Abulhawa posted on social media that she had received “outpouring of support following Mamdani’s unfortunate capitulation to zionist power.” “Let’s keep our focus on the crimes and victims of Jewish supremacist zionist ghouls, vampires, parasites, etc.,” she wrote unrepentantly on X.
Duwaji herself faced scrutiny in recent months.
NYC First Lady Rama Duwaji liked over 70 Instagram posts that contained radical anti-Israel content, including Holocaust inversion and accusations of genocide against Israel.
Rama Duwaji, the wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, has expressed regret over past social media posts which includes posts in which she made anti-Israel statements and praised Palestinian terrorists, with the 28-year-old American artist of Syrian descent making the apology in an interview with online arts magazine “Hyperallergic.”
“When a tabloid recently published old tweets I wrote as a teenager, I felt a lot of shame being confronted with language I used that is so harmful to others,” Duwaji said. “Being 15 doesn’t excuse it. I’ve read and seen a lot of what others have had to say in response, and I understand the hurt I caused and am truly sorry.”
In the viral moment that sparked the latest uproar, the Washington Free Beacon reported on March 13 that Duwaji had illustrated an essay titled “A Trail of Soap” by Abulhawa for the Slow Factory magazine.
The publication featured Duwaji’s black-and-white artwork alongside Abulhawa’s controversial essay, which drew immediate attention for the author’s inflammatory rhetoric. Abulhawa has a long documented history of using dehumanizing language toward Israelis and Jewish people on social media platforms, statements she has not retracted or apologized for despite calls to do so from Jewish organizations and community leaders.
Mayor Mamdani defended his wife’s role as a freelance illustrator who was unaware of Abulhawa’s controversial background, emphasizing the separation between Duwaji’s commercial work and her personal views. Nonetheless, the association raised fresh concerns about the mayor’s administration and cultural work being used to platform figures with inflammatory rhetoric.
Key City Hall staffers did not know in advance that New York City first lady Rama Duwaji had been commissioned to do artwork that appeared alongside the work of an author who praised the October 7 attacks.
Mayor Mamdani’s next major public appearance is scheduled for a Passover event in New York City.