One of the leading Palestinian representatives at the United Nations is reported to live in opulence in a luxurious apartment in Manhattan, all while attributing the plight of Gazan civilians to Israel, which has raised concerns among Jewish tenants in the building.
Majed Bamya, holding the position of Palestinian Deputy Permanent Observer to the UN, resides with his family in the Regency Towers on the Upper East Side, where the cost of three-bedroom units can reach as high as $11,000 a month, according to a report from the Washington Free Beacon.
The upscale 34-story structure located on East 63rd Street is just moments away from Central Park, featuring amenities such as a 24-hour doorman, a fitness center, and a rooftop terrace, as detailed on Carlyle Property Management’s website.
Bamya’s spouse, Sahar Salem, collaborates with him as an adviser at the UN’s Palestinian mission.
Bamya has frequently leveraged his platform to vocally criticize Israel, accusing the nation of committing genocide amidst its military actions against Hamas in Gaza.
“There are individuals starving just a stone’s throw away from supplies yet cannot reach them. Israel has ensured that famine has taken hold,” he stated to the UN in May 2024.
More unsettlingly, Bamya has characterized Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian leader serving a life sentence for the murder of five Israelis, as a “new Nelson Mandela” and advocated for him to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in a 2015 post on X.
He has also urged fellow Palestinians to “rise against the Israeli occupation,” and “strive once again to defend our cause,” in a now-unavailable blog post from 2012.
Residents of Regency Towers are understandably alarmed by Bamya’s presence, with one apartment owner estimating that “80% of the apartments on his floor display a mezuzah.”
“It’s primarily a Jewish building, with many religious Jews as well,” the source noted.
“Discussions about him have occurred in the elevator: ‘Is he [Bamya] a murderer? Did he rise to his diplomatic role by killing Jews?’ This is a thought process I’m grappling with,” the resident expressed.
Neither Bamya nor the management at Regency Towers responded to inquiries for comments.
Records reveal that Bamya and his family have been residents of Manhattan since 2016, the year he was appointed as First Counsellor to the Palestinian mission.
Their prior residence was registered as the Palestinian UN mission on East 65th Street.
Before his tenure at the Palestinian mission, Bamya operated as a “Coordinator of the Free Marwan Barghouti and All Palestinian Political Prisoners” initiative for the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, as documents indicate.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas is estimated to possess a fortune of $100 million, illustrating the affluence some Palestinian officials have accrued over the years by misappropriating Western aid.
Yasser Arafat, the founder of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), reportedly amassed over $1 billion during his lifetime, once managing an airline, a shipping firm, banana plantations, an African diamond mine, and extensive real estate across the Middle East.
Although the Trump administration canceled many Palestinian officials’ visas prior to the recent UN General Assembly, Bamya and his wife were granted waivers due to existing agreements between the UN and the US government.
