9/11 Victims' Families Petition Mayor Over Memorial Attendance

On Tuesday, relatives of more than a dozen 9/11 victims gathered at New York City Hall and hand-delivered a Change.org petition to Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The petition asks the mayor to refrain from attending the September 11 (scheduled) ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial, where the names of all 2,983 victims will be read aloud.

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They also object to Mamdani’s hiring of Ramzi Kassem as chief counsel, noting Kassem’s 2014 representation of an al Qaeda terrorist detained at Guantánamo Bay. The petition, initiated by Giovanni Galante in July, has amassed more than 102,000 signatures. Families such as Cheri Sparacio, Monica Iken, and Charles Wolfe voiced frustration that the mayor would attend the ceremony despite their appeal for respect from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.

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Mayor Mamdani reiterated his intention to attend the memorial ceremony and other commemorative events this week. He announced that his administration will release over 170,000 pages of documents shedding new light on air-quality conditions around Ground Zero in the months following the attacks. In addition, Mamdani signed two executive orders last week, one of which designates September 11 as a “Citywide Day of Remembrance Service.”

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Ramzi Kassem, the mayor’s chief counsel, previously served as counsel for an al Qaeda detainee held at Guantánamo Bay in 2014. Families cite this representation as a primary reason for their opposition to the mayor’s participation in the ceremony.

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The petition and public statements increase pressure on the mayor ahead of the September 11 (scheduled) ceremony. The release of extensive Ground Zero air-quality records and the newly signed executive orders are likely to shape public discourse on the city’s commemorative policies and accountability measures.

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