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Habibi City: The 31-page New York Magazine project critics are calling antisemitic
August 13, 2026

New York Magazine is facing sharp criticism over a 31-page special project titled “Habibi City,” a roughly 5,000-word package exploring Arab and Muslim culture in New York City during the tenure of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The online feature, which includes a main article by writer Zaina Arafat as well as sections devoted to food, comedy and nightlife, has drawn accusations from Jewish groups and activists that it marginalizes New York’s Jewish community and overlooks the history and identity of Jews whose families originated in Arab countries and the broader Middle East. Critics also objected to the feature’s focus on the war in Gaza, including references to alleged “genocide,” and to language describing Israel as “a mass of land now called Israel.” Jewish organizations were particularly critical of Arafat’s main article, in which she expressed solidarity with SWANA — Southwest Asian and North African — New Yorkers who continue to face “xenophobia, Islamophobia, and Zionism…” READ MORE

COMBAT ANTISEMITISM ‘Habibi City’ and Qatari Money: Doha’s Media Push to Turn Americans Against Israel According to Commentary Magazine editor John Podhoretz, New York Magazine‘s recent controversial “Habibi City” series glorifying Palestinian terror and likening Zionism to a variety of racism to be overcome, sent a chilling message: “Jews aren’t welcome in Mamdani’s NYC.” In truth, the package — consisting of several articles, including one that described October 7th as a kind of unifying awakening for New York’s Middle Eastern hipsters — was designed to erase the Jewish contribution to the making of the second-largest Jewish city in the world. And replace the Jews with what exactly? “Under James Murdoch,” according to the Washington Free Beacon, referring to the youngest son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the magazine’s new owner, “New York Magazine Tilts Toward Hamas.”

YEAH THATS KOSHER New York Magazine Blamed the Victim on Israeli Restaurants New York Magazine spent thousands of words in its “Habibi City” issue asking why Israeli restaurants have quietly dropped the word “Israeli” from their menus, their signage, and their Instagram bios. Then it gave every answer except the honest one. The feature, Madeline Leung Coleman’s “When Eating Out Is Political,” treats the disappearance of Israeli identity from the New York dining scene as a story of guilt catching up with the guilty. The truth is the opposite. These restaurants are not hiding because they have something to apologize for. They are hiding because people keep smashing their windows, and a magazine that could have said so decided instead to explain why they had it coming.