Category World News

Palestinian rights activists praise New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for reversing pro-Israel municipal laws within the first few hours of his inauguration, a move that the Israeli government swiftly condemned.

After Adams was charged with bribery on September 26, 2024, Mamdani removed all executive orders that his successor, Eric Adams, had implemented on his first day in office.

One of the orders forbids mayoral appointees from issuing contracts that “discriminate against the State of Israel, Israeli citizens, or those associated with” the US ally.

Its signing, which was less than a month old, was seen by critics as an attempt to stoke unrest in the incoming Mamdani administration.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), according to advocates, can be used to censor and punish anti-Semitism in a recently withdrawn decree, which was later withdrawn.

Israel and its supporters have long advocated for the “criminalization of dissent,” according to Nasreen Issa, a member of the Palestine Youth Movement in NYC.

According to Issa, Mamdani’s rejection of this is a positive step in the direction of upholding Palestinians’ rights, Issa said.

Mamdani’s revoking of an “unconstitutional order restricting the ability of New Yorkers to criticize the Israeli government’s racism or boycott Israel’s human rights abuses” was also applauded by Afaf Nasher, the head of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)’s New York chapter.

According to Nasher, “This unconstitutional, Israel First attack on free speech should never have been made,” Nasher said in a statement.

Nasher criticized the IHRA definition further, claiming that “overly broad” guidelines categorize Zionism as anti-Semitism.

According to Nasher, the decree would have also proscribed boycotts against Israel that were only constitutional.

The IHRA definition, which focuses primarily on Israel, has long been opposed by Palestinian rights supporters. The definition lists 11 anti-Semitism instances, six of which involve Israel.

They include “applying double standards” to Israel and “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”

YL Al-Sheikh, a Palestinian-American writer active in the Democratic Socialists of America, praised Mayor Mamdani’s decision on day one to strengthen our right to free speech, which included our right to criticize and oppose Israeli apartheid and genocide.

The IHRA’s implementation as government policy should not be about stifling dissent, which all Americans oppose.

Israel weighs in.

Mamdani’s actions were condemned by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday, claiming that the newly elected mayor is “showing his true face.”

Not leadership, this. In a post on the social media platform X, it read, “It’s antisemitic gasoline on an open fire.”

In a separate statement, Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs, criticized Mamdani’s decision using Islamophobic language.

He identified himself as the “Hamas sympathiser” and made contact with Sadiq Khan, the Muslim mayor of London.

These are exactly the choices you make when a Muslim Brotherhood Islamist with the slogan “Globalize the Intifada” takes control of New York City or London,” Chikli wrote on X.

There are no known ties between Mamdani and Khan regarding the Muslim Brotherhood.

Issa claimed that the mayor’s aggressive response to Israel is aimed more at enshrine the narrative rather than at influencing the mayor’s decisions.

“Israel’s main approach has been to push for the criminalization of protected speech through these warped definitions of anti-Semitism like the IHRA,” she said at the highest level and at the Foreign Ministry’s level.

The current response is to push for the criminalization of dissention because they are losing in the court of public opinion.

Issa also referred to Chikli’s attack on Mamdani as “blatant Islamophobia, racism, and disinformation.”

According to Issa, “They’re trying to spread these accusations that have no basis in reality,”

“From their perspective, nothing is acceptable about any support for Palestinians, any opposition to Israel’s genocide, or any military actions taken in Gaza or the West Bank over the past two years, or over the past decades.”

Al-Sheikh criticized Israel’s attempts to impose its preferences on local government in New York as “absurd.”

Al-Sheikh said, “Even Americans who aren’t Palestinian or pro-Palestine can see this is strange and restricts our rights.”

“It’s also oddly counterproductive on Israel’s part because Mamdani only gets better with it. The universal American position is that you should be allowed to criticize any country you want, not a country, according to a single policy paper that said you couldn’t criticize a nation.

However, Israel was not the only country to criticize Mamdani’s deeds. The Mamdani administration received a warning from the president’s administration, according to the Trump administration.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division’s assistant attorney general, Harmeet Dhillon, stated that her office would be watchful of “AT ANY AND ALL CRIME BREACHES” in New York.

In a social media post, Dhillon stated, “We will investigate, sue, and indict as necessary.”

Palestinian solidarity activists frequently reaffirm the importance of denying Israeli violations as a justification for Judaism.

Mamdani’s rise

Mamdani has voiced her opposition to Israeli policies against Palestinians, drawing criticism from Israel’s supporters.

However, he has made a number of promises to keep Jewish people safe. He stated at the time of his inauguration that the Mayor’s Office to Combat Anti-Semitism (MOCA), an Adams-era development, would continue and that his administration would “celebrate and cherish” Jewish New Yorkers.

At the beginning of the new year, the 34-year-old mayor became the first Muslim mayor of the largest city in America to take the oath of office on a copy of the Quran.

When he first made his candidacy announcement late in 2024, the Democratic socialist, who formerly served as a state legislator, had little recognition for his name.

But as his message on affordability and housing steadily expanded, he gradually gained more support.

In one of the most stunning political upsets in recent US history, he defeated former governor Andrew Cuomo to win the Democratic nomination.

After the former governor relaunched his campaign as an independent with Trump’s support, Mamdani then defeated Cuomo once more in the November general elections.

Adams was a Democrat in 2021, but during its four-year tenure, his administration was accused of engaging in a quid pro quo with Turkish government representatives.

Trump’s federal bribery charges were dropped by the Justice Department earlier in 2024. Before the elections, Adams had begun a campaign for independent re-election, but he ultimately abandoned his campaign and supported Cuomo.

Some of Mamdani’s supporters claim that his vocal support for Palestinian rights helped to propel his campaign in the wake of Israel’s growing hostility toward Gaza, despite the platform’s largely local issues.

Officials in the US have revealed that there are now 185 cases of measles in South Carolina, an increase of nine cases from the previous week.

In the update released on Friday, state officials revealed that 172 of the cases involved people who had not received the measles, mumps, and rubella (MRM) vaccine, which was intended to prevent infection.

Four more cases involved partially vaccinated patients, four with unidentified vaccination status, and four more cases are still being investigated. A fully vaccinated person was the only person who contracted one of the infections.

More than 25 years ago, the US declared the elimination of the highly contagious and occasionally fatal measles. However, maintaining that status has become more difficult in the last year.

When there is no local transmission in a particular region, diseases are typically declared eradicate, but cases can still be “imported” from abroad.

The success of the MMR vaccine is largely attributable to its success.

The first measles vaccine was approved for use in the US in 1963, and by 1971, a combination MMR vaccine had been created to simultaneously combat the three illnesses. To become fully immunized, two shots are typically suggested.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initially set a 1982 deadline for the country’s measles elimination in 1978. It nearly 18 years later, reaching its elimination status in 2000, a step short of that goal.

However, the hesitancy in vaccinations was held responsible for the virus’s spread in the US both back then and now.

Measles has a high infection rate despite having a relatively low death rate. According to the CDC, nine out of every ten people in their immediate vicinity might be infected by the virus if just one person is infected.

According to the World Health Organization, between two and three deaths occur for every 1,000 cases that are reported.

Particularly vulnerable are children. High fever, hearing or vision loss, encephalitis, or other brain inflammation, are possible complications.

Medical professionals typically advise that children get their first vaccination as soon as they’re 15 months old and that their second dose is given by age six. The vaccine is widely accepted to be safe.

However, there is a rise in vaccine skepticism in the US, with some critics blaming policies put in place by President Donald Trump’s administration.

CDC data shows that kindergarteners in the US received 95.2% of the MMR vaccine during the 2019-2020 school year.

By the 2023-2024 school year, that percentage had dropped to 92.7 percent, or 280, 000 kindergarteners’ differences.

The measles virus’ resurgence in 2025 marked a significant milestone. The CDC reported 2, 065 measles cases last year, the highest number since 1991, and more than seven times the rate of 2024, when only 285 cases were reported.

Three people died from the virus in one of the biggest outbreaks in Texas, which was first reported in February. No measles death has been reported in the US since 2015 prior to that incident.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the health and human services secretary of Trump’s administration, wrote on social media that the MMR vaccine is the best tool to stop the spread of measles in the wake of that death.

However, Kennedy, who isn’t a doctor, has since expressed opinions that appeared to defend the use of the vaccine.

For instance, he claimed in late April that the MMR vaccine contains a lot of DNA and fetus debris.

However, experts have refuted that claim as false. No fetal tissue has been used since, and the vaccine has no fetal issue. The vaccine’s rubella portion was created using a cell culture from an elective abortion in the 1960s.

Despite widespread outcry from the medical profession, Kennedy has also spread unfounded assertions that vaccination may be linked to autism.

The northwest is where the measles outbreak is right now is most pronounced in South Carolina. According to the South Carolina Department of Public Health, children under the age of 17 are most frequently the victims of reported infections.

Pediatrician Annie Andrews, a Democratic candidate in the state’s midterm elections in 2026, has made combating the outbreak a key component of her campaign. In November’s vote, she intends to challenge Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

As the Gaza Strip is being stricken by winter storms, several Middle Eastern and Asian nations have urged Israel to allow “immediate, full, and unhinged” deliveries of humanitarian aid to the region.

The “deteriorating” conditions in Gaza had made nearly 1.9 million Palestinians especially vulnerable, according to a statement released on Friday by the foreign ministers of Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkiye, Pakistan, and Indonesia.

The statement reads, “Flooded camps, damaged tents, the collapse of damaged buildings, exposed to cold temperatures, combined with malnutrition, have significantly increased risks to civilian lives.”

They demanded that Israel, the occupying power, immediately impose restrictions on the entry and distribution of essential supplies, including tents, shelter materials, medical assistance, clean water, fuel, and sanitation support.

Despite its obligations under international law to ensure that the basic needs of Palestinians in the enclave are met, Israel has continued to impose stringent restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

According to a US-brokered ceasefire signed in October, Israel and Hamas were required to allow hundreds of aid trucks into Gaza every day.

Despite increasingly challenging winter conditions in the coastal territory and a lack of adequate shelter, blankets, and other supplies, Israel has continued to obstruct deliveries.

Because of Israel’s genocidal war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families have fled Gaza and crowded tent camps across the country.

In recent weeks, several people have died as a result of heavy rain and flooding that caused damaged buildings to collapse. As the enclave continues to be sweltering with low temperatures, Palestinian children have also perished from hypothermia.

One Palestinian was killed and several others were hurt by Israeli forces in southern Gaza on Friday, according to Nasser Hospital.

A source at al-Shifa Hospital reported that a woman and two children were seriously injured when an Israeli drone fired a grenade at a tent in Beit Lahiya, in the north of the Strip, at a Palestinian hospital.

Putting a stop to aid efforts is “unacceptable.”

The foreign ministers praised the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations for continuing to aid Palestinians in Gaza “under extremely difficult and complex circumstances.”

Given the important role that UN organizations and international nonprofit organizations play in providing humanitarian aid, they also demanded that Israel permit them to operate in Gaza and the occupied West Bank “in a sustained, predictable, and unrestricted manner.”

They remarked that “any attempt to impede their ability to operate is unacceptable.”

Israel is putting a stop to 37 international NGOs working in Gaza and the West Bank because they broke new registration requirements, as Israel did this week.

Experts have criticized the Israeli government’s new regulations as arbitrarily harsh and in violation of humanitarian law, which call for the organizations to provide detailed information on their staff, funding, and operations.

The NGOs also have concerns that the Israeli military might target Palestinian workers who give them personal information.

Since its war started in the Gaza region in October 2023, Israel has killed about 500 aid workers and volunteers there, according to the government of Gaza.

One of the organizations targeted by the NGO ban, Doctors Without Borders, announced in a statement on Friday that 15 of its colleagues had been killed by Israeli forces.