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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has endorsed U.S. congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, who has defended her presence at a demonstration on October 8, 2023, where participants celebrated the Hamas massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis the previous day.
Avila Chevalier, 32, is challenging five-term Representative Adriano Espaillat in New York’s 13th congressional district’s Democratic primary.
Times of Israel footage captured her wearing a keffiyeh beside a protester with a sign reading “Zionism is genocide.” Some demonstrators chanted “700,” referring to the then-known Israeli death toll, while others made throat-slitting gestures. Participants also hurled obscene gestures at Jewish counter-protesters and shouted “Globalize the Intifada.”
Zohran Mamdani just endorsed Darializa Avila Chevalier for Congress.
On October 8th, 2023, while Jews were still being slaughtered, raped, kidnapped, and hunted across southern Israel, she attended the "All Out For Palestine" rally in NYC.
Some clips: pic.twitter.com/SaI9A0ih7A
— Yehuda Teitelbaum (@chalavyishmael) June 4, 2026
In a Thursday statement to City & State, Avila Chevalier defended her participation in the rally, saying, “Whenever anything happens on the ground [in Israel], there’s always a really outsized reaction that costs thousands of people their lives.”
In 2020, Avila Chevalier reposted a social media comment declaring “Israel doesn’t exist.” She described then-U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden as a “rapist” and “war criminal.” As a Columbia alumna, she helped organize the university’s 2024 Gaza encampment.
She has accused Espaillat of being “bought by the Israeli lobby” over his votes to authorize military aid to Israel.
New York City’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter helped promote the October 8 event but later sought to distance itself from the rally amid widespread criticism.
The Democratic primary takes place on June 23.
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