Council member removes 'Mazol Tov' pager photo post after criticism it celebrated deadly attacks in Lebanon

After facing swift criticism from several progressive City Council members, Ald. Brendan Reilly took down a tweet of a photo of a pager with the words “Mazol Tov,” which critics interpreted as a reference to the attacks in Lebanon in which device explosions killed dozens and wounded thousands, including civilians.

Reilly posted the photo on X on Wednesday afternoon during a City Council meeting and deleted the tweet roughly an hour later. Mazel Tov, which can also be spelled Mazal Tov, is a Jewish expression that is used as congratulations.

In a text message to WBEZ, Reilly defended the post.

“It’s a tweet. If a handful of my colleagues don’t like my personal tweets, they are free to unfollow my account,” Reilly wrote.

When asked for further explanation on the intention of the post, Reilly said “It’s simply a tweet” and that his colleagues' interpretations that it is a celebration of the deadly attacks “are incorrect,” but he did not provide further explanation.

Reilly later texted WBEZ, “Given some are offended by the tweet, I am removing it.” But he again refused to explain his intention behind it. Reilly had also tweeted the picture in reply to another account.

In a separate post replying to an X user who asks “Do you agree with Israel’s pager attack?” Reilly called Hezbollah, a political party and militant group in Lebanon, “scum.”

“Hezbollah scum f-d around & found out. Karma’s a b*tch,” he wrote.

Reilly did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that post.

Mayor Brandon Johnson said Wednesday that he had not personally seen the tweet, but that it sounds “quite horrific and beyond offensive.”

“He should apologize for it,” Johnson said, without saying whether Reilly should face repercussions, such as formal censure by City Council members.

The Chicago-based U.S. Palestinian Community Network condemned the tweet and called Reilly a “cheerleader” for violence.

"The tweet sent by Alderman Reilly is a clear example of white privilege and racism," said Hatem Abudayyeh, the national chairperson of the group. "He is an elected official who feels emboldened to be a cheerleader for Israeli violence, genocide and state terrorism.”

Progressive Alds. Byron Sigcho Lopez and Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez quickly condemned the tweet with the pager photo. Both have been outspoken against the war in Gaza and voted in favor of a City Council resolution earlier this year that called for a cease-fire.

“I would say that may God have mercy on his soul,” Sigcho Lopez said. “Terrorism is always wrong, and I expect a swift apology if he has a shred of morality in his body.”

Rodriguez-Sanchez said Reilly should delete the post before he took it down and urged him to apologize.

"It's heartbreaking to see a member of City Council tweet something like that on a day that we have seen a cyberattack perpetrated by Israel that has caused so much death,” Rodriguez-Sanchez said. “I don't understand why anybody would do that, regardless of where you stand, regardless of what your position is, I don't think that it merits celebration or jokes, which is, to me, what appears to be happening in that tweet. It's shameful."

Both Rodriguez-Sanchez and Sigcho Lopez have been criticized by conservative members of the council for comments they've made related to the war in Gaza. Most recently, Sigcho Lopez avoided censure for attending an anti-Israel protest where a U.S. veteran burned an American flag.

The pager attacks apparently targeting devices used by the militant group and political party Hezbollah in Lebanon were believed to be perpetrated by Israel, as that country’s defense minister declared Wednesday “we are at the start of a new phase in the war,” without making mention of the exploding devices.

Across two waves of attacks Tuesday and Wednesday, Lebanon’s health ministry said more than two dozen have been killed, including two children, and over 3,000 have been injured, according to Reuters. The U.N.’s human rights chief called for an independent investigation into the attacks, where hundreds of blasts occurred in homes, grocery stores and elsewhere. At least two healthcare workers were among those killed, according to the Associated Press.

“I hope the United States condemns these terrorist attacks and investigates to ensure no entity within our private or public sector contributed or enabled these despicable acts of terror,” Sigcho Lopez said.

Mariah Woelfel and Tessa Weinberg cover Chicago politics for WBEZ.