“STAY AWAY” ran the huge headline across the top of Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post at the weekend, below the claim that “thousands of 9/11 families demand Mamdani be banned from 25th-anniversary ceremony”.
The paper claimed that a petition for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani to stay away from a forthcoming commemoration of the September 11 attacks had been started by Giovanni Galante, whose wife Grace was among those killed. Galante has described Mamdani, on the basis of pretty much nothing, as “a Muslim that has thoughts to get rid of all Jewish people, and to agree with 9/11”.
The Post, however, is a little confused about the numbers behind the petition on Change.org. While the cover of the paper said that “thousands of 9/11 families demand Mamdani be banned,” the article inside said the petition “has collected over 1,100 signatures in a little over a week, including from at least 300 victims’ families”.
When CBS News New York picked up the story, that figure was downgraded again. After initially reporting that “thousands of 9/11 victims’ families are asking New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani not to attend this year’s solemn remembrance ceremony”, it was contacted by the politics blog Independent Information, which queried its numbers. A revised article on the CBS website now says the petition has “purportedly drawn thousands of signatures, including some victims’ families.”
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And since then, in an interview with Independent Information, Galante acknowledged that there was no actual list of family members who had signed.
“We don’t have a list,” he said. The 300 figure was in fact an estimate based on how they think the petition spread before it received much publicity. “We all know each other, so… think about it. If you know 10 people and they give it to 10 more people they know that lost. That’s how we got the 300 number. I don’t go through the list and look at the names.” In other words: it’s a guess.
As of Monday afternoon, almost 16,000 people had signed the Change.org petition, although it is impossible to know how many were family of 9/11 victims.
Meanwhile, what of the actual basis for the petition: that Mamdani has somehow disrespected victims of the atrocity? There is little evidence of that either.
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The wording of the petition claims he had not demonstrated a “respect for the victims, recognition of the gravity of the attacks, and a clear rejection of the ideologies that contributed to such violence”.
The petition’s evidence, however, relies on remarks by Mamdani’s father, a Brooklyn Imam and Congressional candidate, and none from Mamdani himself.
And asked about the petition during a press conference on Monday, he told reporters: “I will proudly honour the families, the survivors, the first responders, forever impacted by that horrific terror attack by standing alongside them at this year’s 9/11 commemoration, reaffirming that we will never forget the solemn day felt by all of us who call this city home and, frankly, by all of us who call this country home.”
Galante, meanwhile, is a registered Republican who donated $250 to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2019.
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