The fact that Mamdani publicly condemned a Palestinian American author whose work is crucial amid the silencing of voices witnessing the Gaza genocide has disappointed many of his supporters.

The poignancy of the story that Duwaji illustrated, a young Gazan called Deema’s first encounter with the indignity of a public toilet after her home was destroyed, was lost entirely in Mamdani’s condemnation. In his rush to distance himself from a Palestinian voice, he buried the very humanity his wife’s art sought to illuminate.

In her response to Mamdani, Abulhawa reserved her deepest sorrow not for herself but for the young writers she mentored in Gaza —children who risked their lives walking through bombed streets just to reach writing workshops she held in Gaza in 2024, in the middle of the violent, bloody genocide.