New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil for a Ramadan iftar meal at the mayor’s official residence on Monday night, publicly signaling his sympathy for a figure accused by federal officials of supporting extremist causes – just two days after ISIS-inspired suspects threw homemade bombs nearby.

Mamdani and his wife – who liked social media posts celebrating the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre – welcomed Khalil his spouse Noor, and their infant son to Gracie Mansion for the traditional fast-breaking meal during Ramadan. In a social media post accompanying a photograph of the gathering, Mamdani described the meeting in glowing terms.

“Last night, marking a year since his arrest, Rama and I had the great honor of hosting Mahmoud, Noor, and their son Dean at Gracie Mansion to break the fast together,” the mayor wrote.

Khalil, a Syrian-born activist and former graduate student at Columbia University, rose to prominence during the pro-Palestinian campus protests that roiled the university in 2024.

Federal authorities arrested Khalil last year, and he now faces the possibility of deportation. The administration of Donald Trump has accused Khalil of fraud in his green card application and has argued that his activities and views could threaten core U.S. foreign policy interests.

Officials have reportedly invoked a rarely used legal provision that allows the deportation of non-citizens if their beliefs or conduct are deemed harmful to American foreign policy priorities.

Khalil spent roughly three months in a federal detention facility in Louisiana before a three-judge panel in New Jersey allowed his immigration case to continue through the normal legal process. His son was born while he was in custody.

Rather than distancing himself from the activist, Mamdani has repeatedly positioned himself as one of Khalil’s most visible public defenders.

“For Mahmoud Khalil, the past year has been marked by profound hardship, but also by great courage,” Mamdani wrote on social media. “Mahmoud regained his freedom, and a father was finally reunited with his child.”

The mayor has gone even further, declaring publicly that Khalil “is a New Yorker” whose “natural place is here in New York City.”

“I see the attack against him as part of a broader attack on freedom of expression,” he said at a press conference earlier this year, arguing that Khalil is being targeted for criticizing Israeli policies, rather than for supporting terrorism.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)