The beauty queen says that Mamdani’s wife was willing to be photographed in a cafe, but when he found out that she was Israeli, he refused to marry her.
Miss Israel 2025 Melanie Shiraz posted a video of her meeting with Rama Duwaji, wife of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, in a Brooklyn café and alleged that Duwaji refused to negotiate with her on the issue of Palestine. “So, guess who was sitting next to me in a café in New York?” Shiraz, 27, called out the 28-year-old first lady in New York City in an Instagram video. “It’s none other than Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duvaji – the same Rama Duvaji who not long ago posted extremely anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and terrorist sympathies and apologized for it.”Shiraz said that Duwaji was willing to have a photo taken with him as long as he did not know his nationality.“I was disappointed to see the kind of rhetoric she was promoting online, as an Israeli, until I told her this,” Shiraz said. “But I told him that part of my ideology as an Israeli is to have productive dialogue in which one side is not constantly dehumanized.”“But the change in conduct was clear, and even more so was the lack of willingness to engage,” Shiraz wrote on Tuesday. “I turned to real, respectful conversations with openness. That openness was not reciprocated. And, perhaps, that’s the more telling point: how often this disconnect appears, and how normalized it has become.”Rama Duwaji came under criticism due to her social media activities expressing hatred of Israel, although Mamdani defended her and said she was a private person with no prior role in the administration. Rama Duvaji did not issue any statement on the beauty queen’s claim. Even in the video, no conversation is visible between them.Duvaji apologized last month for social media posts he reportedly made as a teenager, saying he was “truly sorry” for sharing messages containing language that was “so hurtful to others” — without providing additional details. One post asserted that Tel Aviv “should not exist,” while another praised Palestinian terrorist Shadia Abu Ghazaleh – a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a US-designated terrorist organization.Duvaji said last month, “When a tabloid recently published old tweets I wrote as a teenager, I felt deeply embarrassed to be confronted with the language I used that is so hurtful to others; being 15 is no excuse for that.” “I’ve read a lot and seen what others have said in response, and I understand the hurt I’ve caused and I’m truly sorry.”