Mamdani rips ‘genocide’ in Palestine at St. Patrick’s Day event — after he botches answer on unified Ireland

By
Matthew Fischetti and
Emily Crane
Published March 17, 2026
Updated March 17, 2026, 9:58 a.m. ET


Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday compared the plight of the Irish to the “genocide” in Palestine — as he used a St. Patrick’s Day celebration to rip the “deafening silence from so many” on the Israel-Hamas war.

The Democratic socialist dropped the Gaza-related remarks as he hosted Ireland’s former President Mary Robinson for breakfast at Gracie Mansion to kickstart the Big Apple’s annual St. Patrick’s Day festivities — though neither mentioned the plight of Iranians under brutal theocratic rule.

“Who can better understand those who weep than those who have been made to weep for so long? The story of the Irish, both in Ireland and in New York City, is at one time a story of oppression, of subjugation, and of discrimination,” Mamdani said.

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani used a St. Patrick’s Day celebration to rip the “deafening silence from so many” on the Israel-Hamas war.

Robert Miller for NY Post

He went on to laud Robinson, who was the first female president to lead Ireland in the ’90s, for her human rights record and history of standing with Palestine.

At 13, He Was Selling Sneakers. At 18, He’s Facing Terror Charges.

In February, Emir Balat disappeared from the online marketplace he frequented. Weeks later, he was arrested in a homemade-bomb attack near Gracie Mansion.

Emir Balat lit what the police say was a homemade bomb at a protest in Manhattan on Saturday.Credit...Vincent Alban/The New York Times

By Andy Newman
March 12, 2026


To the extent that Emir Balat was known at all in the northern suburbs of Philadelphia, it was as a budding entrepreneur.

When he was only 13, he programmed bots to buy pricey sneakers the moment they dropped. His father would drive him to the parking lot of a Wawa convenience store, where he would sell them to a sneaker dealer, sometimes making more than $200 a pair. He told people he was investing in crypto.

Last fall, Mr. Balat started attending high school remotely and began selling contractor supplies online — flooring, sinks and vanities, mini-splits and power tools. Customers gave him rave reviews.

But by mid-February, Mr. Balat suddenly stopped listing items for sale. Soon, prosecutors say, he started planning something darker. On a chilly afternoon in early March, security cameras at a fireworks store a couple of miles from his home captured him pulling into the parking lot in a black Honda with New Jersey plates. He bought 20 feet of slow-burning fuse, prosecutors said.

Five days later, the authorities say, Mr. Balat, 18, and another man who lived near him drove a black Honda over the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan. They parked a few blocks from Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, where an anti-Muslim protest was getting underway on March 7.

Mr. Balat, the police say, took a jar packed with metal and a powerful explosive, lit the fuse and threw the device at protesters. He and the other man, Ibrahim Nikk Kayumi, 19, were immediately arrested. The bomb never exploded, and no one was injured.

Mamdani hosts Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil for Ramadan dinner at Gracie Mansion (Update video)

Amanda Hurley

Tue, March 10, 2026 at 10:24 AM EDT

The Brief

• NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife hosted Mahmoud Khalil and his family at the Gracie Mansion this past weekend.
• It comes one year after the former Columbia University graduate was arrested by ICE.
• The Palestinian activist has since been freed, but his deportation case remains tied up in court.

NEW YORK CITY - New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University graduate student arrested by ICE last year, and his family for Ramadan dinner at the mayor's residence this weekend.

What they're saying

Mamdani posted a photo of the dinner to social media on Monday, stating that he and his wife invited Khalil, his wife and their son to break their fast together.

The dinner also marked the one year since the Palestinian activist was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside his apartment in New York City.

"For Mahmoud Khalil, this past year has been marked by profound hardship—and by profound courage," Mamdani said in the photo caption. "And yet, even in the face of that cruelty, there has also been beauty. New Yorkers raising their voices in solidarity. A city refusing to look away. Mahmoud won his freedom, and a father was finally reunited with his child."

NYPD investigating suspicious device near Gracie Mansion