An eyewitness and survivor of the horrific events of October 7, 2023, in Israel has sharply criticized the actions of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, who “liked” a social media post dismissing the reports of sexual assaults during the Hamas attack as a “mass hoax.”
“To Mrs. Mamdani, my message is clear: do not let political biases obscure the undeniable truths of October 7th. Innocent people endured suffering, were assaulted, and lost their lives,” Tali Biner conveyed to The Post on Friday, speaking from a bomb shelter in Israel.
“I witnessed it firsthand.”
Rama Duwaji, Mamdani’s wife, acknowledged a February 2024 Instagram post by an anonymous pro-Palestinian figure, which cast doubt on a New York Times article detailing the sexual violence inflicted by Hamas on civilians.
Duwaji, a 28-year-old who identifies as a Syrian-American artist, also showed her approval for an Instagram post celebrating the violent assault on the day it occurred.
Biner emphasized that she is giving a voice to the victims of the October 7 sexual assaults who were silenced forever, as they were murdered after enduring such brutality at the hands of the terrorists.
The surgical nurse, now 30, was at the Nova music festival when the massacre unfolded, and spent seven harrowing hours hiding from Hamas killers in a small camper on festival grounds.
She recalls hearing the blood-curdling screams of women, sometimes for what seemed to be 20 minutes.
Biner would hear desperate pleas of âNo!â and âStop!â over and over again, followed by a gunshot.
“I knew beyond any doubt what was happening was not just torture, it was sexual violence,â she said.
When she finally emerged from her hiding place, she discovered naked bodies, young and old, lying on the ground.
âThey dismembered bodies and sexually violated women and men, including rape and the insertion of objects into their bodies,â she said.
âThese are facts.â
“Deep down, I also knew that if they caught me, I would make sure that they kill me as soon as possible,” Biner said. “I would never allow them to sexually violate me. That determination gave me clarity, focus, and the strength to survive, to bear witness, and to remember.
Two years later she is haunted by what she saw and heard — and disgusted by those who deny it happened.
âHearing people claim that the sexual violence of Oct. 7 was a âhoaxâ is deeply painful and disturbing,” Biner told The Post, “especially when such claims come from a woman.
âI would expect any woman â and especially Mrs. Mamdani â to at least try to imagine. To close her eyes and picture evil people breaking into her home, her safe space, assaulting her and her husband, daring to sexually violate her in front of her family, murdering her children before her eyes. This is exactly what our women and men experienced on Oct. 7th,” she said.
She said such denials, and the NYC first lady’s support of them, “makes my blood boil, not just because of the injustice to the victims of Oct. 7, but because every time sexual violence is politicized or denied, it weakens the protection women everywhere should have.”
âIt breaks my heart to know that with mountains of evidence and admissions of the barbarism during the 2023 attack, some people willfully choose not to believe us.”
Biner left nursing because of the trauma she experienced. She is now an Oct. 7 activist, and has turned to singing/songwriting to heal.
Itâs led her to meet powerful figures such as presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who toured the Nova Festival site with the survivor in 2024.
She believes she narrowly survived the barbarity âto speak out, to tell the truth, and to prove these crimes truly happened.â It was Binerâs testimony of hearing piercing screams followed by silence that inspired the title of Sheryl Sandbergâs acclaimed film, Screams Before Silence.
She said her mission is clear.
âThe pain I witnessed is permanent. But it also gave me a responsibility â to be a voice for those who can no longer speak, to honor the victims, and to make sure the world does not look away. Denying or minimizing these crimes is not just a lie â it is an attack on all of us, and a danger to women everywhere.
âThis is not a matter of politics or ideology â it is a matter of human dignity, accountability, and justice.â
