Family members of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks delivered a petition with more than 100,000 signatures to New York City Hall on Tuesday, urging New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani not to attend this week’s ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
New York City Council member Joann Ariola stated that she “stood on the steps of City Hall with the loved ones of many victims of the 9/11 terror attacks” and “demanded that Mayor Mamdani stay away from this year’s ceremonies.”
Ariola said the group handed the petition to a member of Chief Counsel Ramzi Kassem’s staff. Kassem previously represented Ahmed al-Darbi, who pleaded guilty before a U.S. military commission to terrorism-related charges stemming from an al-Qaeda plot to attack commercial shipping.
“The same Ramzi Kassem who defended a convicted al-Qaeda terrorist and is one of the reasons these families don’t want the mayor there in the first place,” Ariola stated. “Mayor Mamdani, apparently, was too cowardly to come out and meet the families to receive the petition himself.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pushed back against the effort.
“Division should not prevail over the spirit of unity that brought us together after Sept. 11,” Hochul wrote. “On this 25th anniversary, we should honor those we lost by coming together again as New Yorkers and Americans. The mayor of New York City will be there, as he should be.”
JNS sought comment from Mamdani’s office and received a statement the mayor issued on Monday reaffirming that he would attend the ceremony. Mamdani has stated since the petition launched that he intends to stand alongside victims’ families, survivors and first responders at Friday’s commemoration.
