Exclusive | NYC first lady Rama Duwaji traveling to Syria, Lebanon with taxpayer-funded NYPD security detail: sources
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife Rama Duwaji is heading to Syria and Lebanon next month – and she’s bringing along cops assigned to the First Couple’s taxpayer-funded NYPD detail, The Post has learned.Duwaji will be jetting to the Middle East for a trip beginning Sept.20 to the countries on the State Department’s “Do Not Travel” list for Americans because of dangerous conditions, a source said.The source familiar with the security detail said the first lady, who’s been described by the mayor as a “private person,” requested NYPD security – after traveling overseas last month without police protection.Duwaji, a 29-year-old Syrian-American artist, has ties to the region and refers to herself as a “Syrian Illustrator” on her website.
Her parents are Syrian Muslims originally from Damascus.Mamdani’s office confirmed the trip and that an NYPD security detail will accompany the mayor’s wife.“Upon the strong recommendation of the NYPD, the First Lady’s security detail will be joining her when she travels to visit family in Syria and Lebanon,” said mayoral spokesperson Dora Pekec.The mayor’s office offered no further comment on the trip’s details or whether the purpose was solely to visit family.The source with knowledge of the trip told The Post, “It’s not official business.It’s not doing anything for the city.”One pro-Israel Jewish advocate opposed sending members of the NYPD to Syria and Lebanon, arguing the officers, not the Israel-bashing Duwaji, will be targets.“We’re putting the police officers in danger.
They will be viewed as the bad guys.These are war zones,” said Dov Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism and a former Brooklyn Assemblyman.“Duwaji doesn’t need security.
She will get a hero’s welcome and be protected by Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis,” Hikind said, referring to Islamic terrorists and militants.“Duwaji will be fine.”The first lady in 2019 had attended a residency at the Hav...