Third Anniversary of Oct. 7 Brings Protests Across NYC and a Heckling at Mamdani's Union Square Vigil

Protests across New York City marked the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks on Wednesday — and by nightfall, heckling had crashed a candlelight vigil in Union Square, where protesters booed Mayor Zohran Mamdani to his face as he stood holding a candle. The day brought organized remembrance and organized protest, moving on parallel tracks through the city, until the protest march walked straight into the vigil.

It began on the campuses. At around 12:30 p.m., organizers from NYU Students for Justice in Palestine staged a walkout in Washington Square Park as part of what the group called its "Week of Rage," per Fox News' reporting — more than 100 demonstrators gathering with banners calling for NYU to divest and shutter its Tel Aviv campus, according to the New York Post. Fox News reported the group said in a social media post that it remains "steadfast in our commitment to Palestinian liberation." Around 2 p.m., demonstrators gathered at the gates of Columbia University — the campus that has been at the center of the protest movement since 2023 — where heavy security was in place and demonstrators chanted through a megaphone, per Fox News.

At 4 p.m., the action moved downtown. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside City Hall, where the day's political grievance came into focus: the crowd accused Mayor Zohran Mamdani of "betraying" Palestinian causes since taking office, per the Post. The grievance is specific and worth stating plainly — activist groups, including three local chapters of the Young Democratic Socialists of America that had promoted the protest (two of which later removed themselves from the post, per the Washington Examiner), say Mamdani has backed away from positions he took before becoming mayor, particularly after he acknowledged he could not arrest Israel's prime minister. The march then moved north through Lower Manhattan toward Union Square.

The vigil they were walking toward had been planned for 7 p.m.: the group Israelis for Peace hosting a candlelight gathering in Union Square that Jewish Business News described as an evening of "quiet reflection and mourning" for those killed on Oct. 7 and in the war that followed. Mamdani had asked to attend but was not scheduled to speak, co-founder Tamar Glazerman told the Post — he would simply listen as survivors' testimonies and eulogies were read. He arrived around 7:30 p.m., candle in hand. Then the marchers arrived, too.

What happened next is documented by multiple outlets and captured on video. Protesters who had marched north from City Hall crashed the vigil, and when they reached Mamdani, they booed and shouted. The chants reported by the Post included "Shame on you" and "Mayor Mamdani take a stand," along with shouts of "You coward!" CNN reported the boos were captured in video from its affiliate WABC. Two keffiyeh-clad demonstrators waving what appeared to be Hamas flags were spotted shouting at those gathered for the memorial, per the Post, and chants of "Nazi scum, all of you" were heard in the chaos.

Here is the detail that defines the night: Mamdani stayed. He remained at the vigil, standing alongside former city comptroller Brad Lander, as the heckling continued. Whatever you think of his politics — and there is plenty of disagreement about them, which is rather the point — there is something to be said for a public official who walks into a hostile crowd, candle in hand, and doesn't leave. The vigil was meant to honor the victims; he showed up for it knowing exactly what was waiting.

The mayor's position going into the day explains why he was getting it from both directions. In his anniversary statement, Mamdani acknowledged what he called the "horrific war crimes of October 7" — writing that Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others — while also accusing Israel of committing war crimes and "genocide" in Gaza, citing more than 74,000 Palestinian deaths including over 21,000 children, per CNN. That pairing drew backlash from some Jewish leaders, CNN reported — the same day the left was protesting him for not going far enough. It is a genuinely unusual position: attacked by Jewish organizations for the genocide accusation, and booed by pro-Palestinian protesters for capitulation. Governing New York was never going to be a popularity contest, but Wednesday made the math of it visible.

It's worth noting the broader picture the anniversary revealed. Three years on, the street-level infrastructure of protest — the student groups, the march routes from campus to City Hall to Union Square, the coordination across boroughs and schools — remains intact and organized. The remembrance infrastructure is equally durable: vigils, survivor testimony, the quiet infrastructure of communal grief. New York has learned how to do both on the same day. It has not yet learned how to keep them from colliding.

After the vigil, Mamdani was scheduled to meet with Palestinian New Yorkers, per his public schedule and CNN — the other half of a day designed to acknowledge both communities. Whether the gesture lands depends entirely on who you ask. The protesters at Union Square have already told him what they think of it. The Jewish leaders who criticized his statement have told him what they think of that. Wednesday was the third anniversary of the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, and the mayor of the largest Jewish city outside Israel spent it being shouted at by both sides. That sentence isn't a judgment. It's just the day, as it happened.