Laura Loomer posted a photo from the NYC DMV today that showed Palestinian flag colors on the screen of an Ingenico iSC Touch 250. The layout is the machine’s stock welcome graphic, not a flag someone uploaded that morning. The colors still read like the Palestinian flag, and that’s the point.
If today were any other day of significance for another group of Zohran Mamdani’s constituents, he would’ve made sure nothing on a city counter could be read as offensive to them. Not today. Palestinian colors at the DMV are no problem for Mamdani on October 7. He needs that screen removed, and he needs to make sure no other design like it is sitting on government property in New York City.
Mamdani spends a lot of time telling other people to watch what they display. He should hold a city office to the same standard, especially for Jewish New Yorkers, and especially on October 7.
A city that polices symbols when other groups complain doesn’t get to call this nothing because the machine came that way. October 7 is the anniversary of the Hamas massacre in Israel. A payment screen that reads as that flag, sitting on a public counter, is a bad display on that day. It would be a bad display on any day.
Mamdani is quick to demand sensitivity when the complaint matches his politics. Jewish New Yorkers get the same claim on a city office. If the screen can be changed, change it. If it can’t, say so. Pretending the colors don’t matter because the mayor likes the cause is the part that fails the test he applies to everyone else.