Federal holidays are no cause for celebration, according to a far-left Queens Assembly candidate backed by NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
“Whether it is July 4th, Thanksgiving, Veterans, Columbus or now Labor Day, we enjoy days off that are supposed to be victories for people, when they truly represent the silencing & destruction of our movements,” Aber Kawas, a longtime Palestinian-American activist, wrote in an online journal posted on Sept. 7, 2015 — Labor Day.
“Today I do not celebrate a day off, I only recommit myself to a global movement that fights against the death, displacement, and exploitation of people for capital.
“For this movement, a day off is not a victory. A day off means nothing, because liberation means everything,” added Kawas, who like Mamdani, is a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
“Dignity, justice & equality is the true victory. Don’t get it twisted.”
The resurfaced remarks by the 33-year-old, Brooklyn-born Kawas — who moved to Queens last year — are a slap in the face to American principles such as equality and liberty established in the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, critics said.
“When Zohran Mamdani backs candidates like Aber Kawas who openly hate Labor Day, Veterans Day, and the American Dream, it’s a warning sign that we need to stop electing people who despise this country and everything it stands for,” said Councilman Robert Holden, a conservative Queens Democrat.
“Socialism has failed everywhere, and it’s flat-out un-American.”
Kawas is seeking the 34th District Assembly seat representing Corona and other parts of Queens.
Assemblywoman Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas is vacating the seat to challenge state Sen. Jessica Ramos (D-Queens).
Despite Mamdani’s endorsement, Kawas is no lock to win in the predominantly far-left district and will likely have to duke it out against a fellow DSA comrade in the next year’s Democratic primary.
Gonzalez-Rojas endorsed her chief of staff Brian Romero, while the DSA’s Electoral Working Group has recommended endorsing Kawas, according to City & State.
Kawas is a former intern for the Council on American-Islamic Relations who has remained affiliated with the controversial Muslim charity through her activism for more than a decade.
She recently came under fire for incendiary comments about 9/11, which resurfaced on X last month after news of Mamdani’s reported support for her campaign came to light.
“The system of capitalism and racism and white supremacy et cetera — and Islamophobia — have all been used, you know, to colonize lands, to take resources from other people, and so this is a long trajectory and we are just seeing the manifestations of that continuation … with 9/11,” she said in an unearthed video segment posted by Australian political activist Drew Pavlou.
“The idea we have to apologize for like a terror attack that like a couple of people did and then there is no apology or reparations for genocides and for slavery, et cetera — is something I find reprehensible,” she added.
Mandani’s reps and Kawas did not return messages.
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