New York Magazine faced backlash this week over its new “Habibi City” issue focused on the growing cultural and political influence of New York’s South Asian and North African communities, with critics taking aim at the package’s treatment of Israel, Zionism and Jewish identity.
The centerpiece, written by Zaina Arafat and published Monday, chronicled what the magazine described as a cultural “SWANA-ssance” in New York, using the acronym for Southwest Asia and North Africa.
Arafat traced the emergence of a network of restaurants, cafés, literary events, parties and political organizations that have helped make the community an increasingly visible force in the city. She argued that the movement accelerated following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent war, describing a cultural ecosystem that grew out of the protests and organizing against Israel’s military action in Gaza that followed.
The story said being part of the SWANA community came to encompass a set of shared beliefs, including support for Palestinian human rights, the belief that Israel’s actions in Gaza following Oct. 7 constitute genocide and a commitment to social justice and social welfare.
Arafat presented SWANA as an alternative to the term “Middle East,” describing it as offering a “decolonial framework” for understanding the region and its diaspora.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani also figured prominently in the piece, with Arafat pointing to his election as perhaps the strongest evidence of New York’s “SWANA-ssance.”
Though the Ugandan-born Indian American Muslim is not himself from the SWANA region, Arafat wrote that Mamdani is “deeply embedded in its culture.” The story pointed to his campaign visits to SWANA-owned businesses and relationships with community leaders. Mamdani is married to Syrian American artist Rama Duwaji, and the piece notes that both are vocally pro-Palestinian.
The article also quoted the Mamdani campaign’s senior adviser Zara Rahim, who argued that the cultural shift expanded New Yorkers’ ability to envision a Muslim candidate leading the city.
But several passages dealing with Israel and Zionism have drawn criticism since the issue was published Monday.
Near the end of the centerpiece, Arafat wrote that SWANA New Yorkers continue to encounter “xenophobia, Islamophobia and Zionism,” grouping Zionism with the other two.
The story also included Jewish participation in the cultural scene it described. Arafat wrote about Arab Jewish singer Laura Elkeslassy and noted that Jews, including anti-Zionist Israelis, have participated in events at Barzakh Café, a Crown Heights gathering place featured prominently in the piece.
The issue also included a Grub Street story by Madeline Leung Coleman examining how the politics surrounding Israel and Gaza have increasingly intersected with New York’s Middle Eastern restaurant scene.
Coleman traced the rise of what became known as “New Israeli cuisine” during the 2010s, when Israeli chefs and restaurants received widespread attention in New York, before examining how dining choices and restaurant identities became more politically charged after Oct. 7.
The piece discussed Palestinian restaurant Ayat, including a tourist-style map on its menu that depicts the territory of Israel under the heading “Discover Palestine.” Coleman described Israel in that passage as “the land mass currently called Israel.”
Elsewhere, Coleman examined Israeli restaurants and chefs alongside Palestinian, Syrian, Iranian and other Middle Eastern establishments, including disagreements among owners, workers and diners over the Israel-Gaza war and the political meaning attached to the food they serve.
The package has since drawn criticism from British historian and author Simon Sebag Montefiore, who wrote on X that it left a “nasty, sickly taste.”
Montefiore argued that what could have been a celebration of New York’s Arab, Iranian, Palestinian and broader Middle Eastern cultural scene instead became what he called a “screed of hate bigotry ignorance.”
This leaves such a nasty, sickly taste. It is very strange how a celebration of the wondrous delicious eclectic scene of Arab, Iranian, Palestinian, Middle Eastern food and culture – something delightful and positive about New York life and indeed about the MIddle East itself -… https://t.co/FcJDzzO3SK
— S Sebag Montefiore (@simonmontefiore) August 12, 2026
End Jew Hatred also criticized the issue, arguing that the package celebrates SWANA culture in ways that allow “Jewish identity to be erased in favor of a political loyalty test.”
The pro-Israel media advocacy group HonestReporting also took aim at the package, specifically criticizing Coleman’s characterization of Israel as “the land mass currently called Israel” and arguing that the wording treats the country’s identity as provisional.
The criticism came as New York’s story itself acknowledged tensions over how Israelis and Jews fit within the SWANA framework. Arafat wrote that while Israel is geographically part of the region, whether Israelis identify with or are accepted within the broader community can depend on politics and ethnic background.
The centerpiece ultimately argued that SWANA New Yorkers have gained a degree of cultural visibility and political influence that would have been difficult to imagine in the years following the Sept. 11 attacks, when many Arab and Muslim New Yorkers felt pressure to keep a lower profile.
Actor Arian Moayed, one of the people interviewed for the piece, recalled that having meaningful cultural “narrative power” once seemed impossible.
Arafat described the community’s growing influence as both a cultural renaissance and a form of resilience, invoking the Arabic concept of “sumud,” or steadfastness and perseverance.
New York Magazine did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
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