NYC first girl Rama Duwaji touring to Syria, Lebanon — with NYPD element: sources

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s spouse Rama Duwaji is heading to Syria and Lebanon subsequent month – and he or she’s bringing alongside cops assigned to the First Couple’s taxpayer-funded NYPD element, The Post has discovered.

Duwaji will likely be jetting to the Middle East for a visit starting Sept. 20 to the international locations on the State Department’s “Do Not Travel” record for Americans due to harmful situations, a supply stated.

The supply aware of the safety element stated the primary girl, who’s been described by the mayor as a “private person,” requested NYPD safety – after touring abroad final month with out police safety.

Duwaji, a 29-year-old Syrian-American artist, has ties to the area and refers to herself as a “Syrian Illustrator” on her web site. Her dad and mom are Syrian Muslims initially from Damascus.

Mamdani’s workplace confirmed the journey and that an NYPD safety element will accompany the mayor’s spouse.

“Upon the strong recommendation of the NYPD, the First Lady’s security detail will be joining her when she travels to visit family in Syria and Lebanon,” stated mayoral spokesperson Dora Pekec.

The mayor’s workplace supplied no additional touch upon the journey’s particulars or whether or not the aim was solely to go to household.

The supply with data of the journey instructed The Post, “It’s not official business. It’s not doing anything for the city.”

One pro-Israel Jewish advocate opposed sending members of the NYPD to Syria and Lebanon, arguing the officers, not the Israel-bashing Duwaji, will likely be targets.

“We’re putting the police officers in danger. They will be viewed as the bad guys. These are war zones,” stated Dov Hikind, founding father of Americans Against Antisemitism and a former Brooklyn Assemblyman.

“Duwaji doesn’t need security. She will get a hero’s welcome and be protected by Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis,” Hikind stated, referring to Islamic terrorists and militants.

“Duwaji will be fine.”

The first girl in 2019 had attended a residency on the Haven for Artists in Beirut, Lebanon, which describes itself as a cultural feminist group at “the intersection of art and activism.”

Last month, Duwaji co-hosted a pro-Palestinian all-female religious retreat on the French island of Corsica.The occasion was organized by Women Sanctuary, a Muslim-and-women-focused journey group run by Parisian designer Rym Nur.

Duwaji additionally ditched America’s 250th anniversary celebrations to jet off to the Women Sanctuary’s earlier retreat on the Spanish island of Mallorca, the place she was the “artist-in-residence” at a sold-out “Plants Of The Quran” workshop.

The mayor’s workplace stated on the time that Duwaji was not accompanied on that journey by NYPD cops.

Like her husband, Duwaji is thought for her pro-Palestnian, anti-Israel views.

She reportedly curated Spotify playlists with songs which have foulmouthed anti-Israel lyrics, following the Oct. 7, 2023  Hamas terror assaults towards the Jewish state.

Duwaji was additionally caught liking celebratory Instagram posts within the aftermath of Hamas’s sneak assault on Israel, and a publish claiming the rapes carried out by the phobia group towards Israeli hostages and victims have been a “mass hoax.”

Duwaji, who was profiled in a New York journal piece weeks earlier than Mamdani took workplace, was additionally uncovered for previous inflammatory social media posts. For instance, in 2015, she claimed Tel Aviv “shouldn’t exist in the first place” whereas calling its residents “occupiers,” and two years earlier, as a teen, she used the n-word in one other publish.

She apologized in April for the “hurt” attributable to alarming social media posts – although she didn’t immediately specific remorse for the Israel-bashing content material.

Mamdani has stood up for his spouse, claiming she is a “private person” who mustn’t face a obtrusive highlight over her social media exercise.

She was additionally deeply concerned in a Democratic socialist activist marketing campaign pushing political candidates crucial of Israel and backing a controversial invoice focusing on pro-Israel charities.

Duwaji created art work for the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America because the lefty group unleashed a public marketing campaign referred to as “PalestineOnTheBallot.com.”

The effort promoted candidates working in Democratic Party primaries who snubbed funding from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and vowed to assist the Not on Our Dime Act — a invoice that may punish or dissolve registered charities discovered to assist “Israeli settler violence.”