NEW YORK   –  The illustration took City Hall by surprise. Rama Duwaji’s artwork depicted the face of a woman drawn in black and white, her eyebrows full and scrunched above a sharp nose, and her almond-shaped eyes sitting above a pair of hands reaching outward. The image was published in February by the online magazine Slow Factory alongside an essay written by Diana Islayih about a Gaza camp for people internally displaced in the Israel-Hamas war. The essay is part of a compilation of essays edited by Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa. As New York City’s new first lady, Duwaji’s art created days of headlines and tough questions at press conferences for Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Key City Hall staffers did not know Duwaji had been commissioned to do the artwork or about Abulhawa’s posts, which were first reported by the conservative Washington Free Beacon earlier this month, according to two people briefed on the matter. Abulhawa has referred to Israeli forces as “Jewish supremacist demons” and described Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack shortly after it happened as “a spectacular moment that shocked the world” after what she described as “Israel’s criminally merciless siege of Gaza.”  While Duwaji has not publicly commented, Mamdani spoke out against Abulhawa’s language. He also explained Duwaji’s freelance work was secured through a third party, that Duwaji had not been in direct communication with the author and that she was not aware of Abulhawa’s posts.

“I think that that rhetoric is patently unacceptable. I think it’s reprehensible,” Mamdani said on March 13 in reference to Abulhawa. A spokesperson for Mamdani declined to comment on what his administration knew beforehand about the artwork. The people briefed on the episode, who declined to be named so as to not antagonize the mayor, argued the backlash raises questions about whether her work should be more closely vetted.

“The mayor condemned the author’s language, to his credit,” said Scott Richman, New York regional director for the Anti-Defamation League. “However, we have not heard from her. Does she have a problem with the author and her statements? We just don’t know.”

Abulhawa, meanwhile, denied that she was anti-Jewish and said she was disappointed in what Mamdani had said.

“You succumbed to forces that seek to pick away at you, at your talented, beautiful wife, and at your work, clawing harder with each apology or concession you make,” she said. “If you are not careful, they will siphon your soul before you even realize it.” There have been subsequent revelations of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel posts Duwaji had shared and liked, as well as a post including a racial slur that the Free Beacon reported she posted when she was 15. CNN has not independently verified the posts and has reached out to City Hall for comment.

They went unnoticed during Mamdani’s mayoral campaign but are now creating new scrutiny for both of them, particularly as Mamdani faces skepticism from many in the city’s Jewish community, the largest of any city outside Israel.

Mamdani said in a press conference earlier this month that Duwaji, a Texas-born professional artist of Syrian descent, is a “private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my City Hall.” His aides and allies contend there is a double standard applied to the city’s first Muslim mayor and one of the most prominent Muslims in politics, arguing much of the criticism against them is manufactured and driven by Islamophobia. But both the mayor and first lady have long centered pro-Palestinian advocacy in their public lives.