After facing swift criticism from several progressive city council members, Rep. Brendan Riley deleted a tweet containing a photo of a communication device with the words “Mazol Tov” written on it, which critics interpreted as a reference to the attacks in Lebanon where device explosions killed dozens and injured thousands, including civilians.
Riley posted the photo to X, formerly known as Twitter, Wednesday afternoon during a city council meeting and deleted the tweet about an hour later. Mazel Tov, which can also be spelled Mazal Tov, is a Jewish expression used to express congratulations.
In a text message to WBEZ, Riley defended the position.
“It’s a tweet. If a group of my colleagues don’t like my personal tweets, they are free to unfollow my account,” Riley wrote.
When asked for further clarification on the intent of the post, Riley said “it's just a tweet” and that his colleagues' interpretations that it was a celebration of the deadly attacks were “incorrect,” but he did not provide further explanation.
Riley later texted WBEZ, saying, “Since some people took offense to the tweet, I'm deleting it.” But he again declined to explain his intent. Riley also tweeted the photo in response to another account.
In a separate post in response to an X user who asked, “Do you approve of Israel attacking the pager?”, Reilly called Hezbollah, a political party and militant group in Lebanon, “scum.”
“Hezbollah scum has been hanging around and figured it out. Karma is a bitch,” he wrote.
Riley did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this post.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said Wednesday he had not personally seen the tweet, but it appeared “absolutely appalling and beyond offensive.”
“He should apologize for that,” Johnson said, without saying whether Riley should face consequences, such as a formal censure by city council members.
The Chicago-based Palestinian Community Network in the United States condemned the tweet, calling Riley an “encourager” of violence.
“Rep. Riley’s tweet is a clear example of white privilege and racism,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, the group’s national president. “He is an elected official who feels emboldened to be a cheerleader for Israeli violence, genocide, and state terrorism.”
Progressive Reps. Byron Sigcho Lopez and Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez were quick to condemn the tweet containing the pager image. Both have been vocal in their opposition to the war in Gaza and voted in favor of a city council resolution earlier this year calling for a ceasefire.
“I would like to say God have mercy on him. Terrorism is always wrong and I expect a quick apology if he has an ounce of morality,” Sigcho Lopez said.
Rodriguez-Sanchez said Riley should delete the post before it was removed and urged him to apologize.
“It’s sad to see a city council member tweet like that on a day when we had a cyberattack from Israel that caused so many deaths,” Rodriguez-Sanchez said. “I don’t understand why anyone would do that, no matter what your position is, no matter what your position is, I don’t think it’s worth celebrating or joking about, which is what it seems to me is happening with that tweet. It’s shameful.”
Both Rodriguez-Sanchez and Sigcho-Lopez have been criticized by conservative council members for their comments on the war in Gaza. Sigcho-Lopez recently avoided censure for attending an anti-Israel protest where an American veteran burned an American flag.
The attacks, which apparently targeted devices used by the militant group and political party Hezbollah in Lebanon, are believed to have been carried out by Israel, with the Israeli defence minister declaring on Wednesday that “we are at the beginning of a new phase in the war”, without referring to explosive devices.
In two waves of attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday, Lebanon’s health ministry said more than 20 people, including two children, were killed and more than 3,000 wounded, according to Reuters. The U.N. human rights chief called for an independent investigation into the attacks, in which hundreds of explosions rocked homes, grocery stores and other locations. At least two health care workers were among the dead, the Associated Press reported.
“I hope the United States will condemn these terrorist attacks and investigate to ensure that no entity within the private or public sector contributed to or enabled these heinous acts of terrorism,” Sigcho Lopez said.
Maria Wohlfel and Tessa Weinberg cover Chicago politics for WBEZ.
