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Rachel Accurso is a lot of things. When she isn’t making videos for children as the beloved Ms Rachel, she’s a mom, a volunteer for children‘s welfare groups and a staunch critic of Israel and their devastating war on Gaza. She’s also, apparently, a party planner.

The YouTube celebrity is one of 48 people appointed by New York City’s incoming mayor Zohran Mamdani to plan his inauguration party, his transition team announced.

New York‘s famous Broadway will host the January 1 celebration where everyone’s invited — it‘s open to the public — and the organising team includes some big names such as actors Cynthia Nixon, John Turturro and Kal Penn.

Other planners include writers, campaign workers and representatives from New York’s many ethnic communities — especially South Asian communities, with whom Mamdani holds a personal connection. The head of Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-zionist campaign group, is also on the committee.

Seeing Accurso and the mayor-elect working together is no surprise as their views often overlap. The children‘s YouTuber has repeatedly asserted that Israeli actions in Gaza are immoral and civilians — especially children — must be protected at all costs.

She’s also partnered with groups working to provide evacuation and aid for children in Gaza and Sudan, personally meeting up with some of these children and welcoming them to the United States

Mamdani, meanwhile, has said that he will have the New York Police Department arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he try to enter the city.

Both have faced an onslaught of attacks from pro-Israel groups, with Accurso being called a Hamas propagandist and being nominated for the title of Anti-Semite of the Year by lobby group StopAntisemitism.

Mamdani faced similar allegations during his campaign, when some media outlets — many of them based in Israel — reported a sense of anxiety among members of New York‘s Jewish community about the city’s first Muslim mayor.