New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani responded Thursday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used his United Nations General Assembly speech to criticize him by name over his rhetoric toward Israel and the Jewish community.
“As he has done time and again, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians. Yet no lie can change the fact that he remains the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity," Mamdani said.
Netanyahu devoted part of his UN address to attacking Mamdani’s record since becoming mayor, arguing that Jews in New York no longer feel as secure in the city.
"Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York. They talk to me. They tell me: 'This isn't the city we remember. It changed so quickly.'"
The Prime Minister went on to accuse Mamdani of associating with people who support Hamas or justify terrorism, while also criticizing his wife’s social media activity and his repeated accusations that Israel is committing genocide.
"It's no wonder. You praise criminals convicted of supporting Hamas. You count as friends people like Hasan Piker, who said America deserved 9/11. Some friends you have. You invite into your home a Palestinian journalist who filmed Hamas terrorists beating and torturing Israeli hostages and later admitted that he refused to publish the videos in order to protect - you guessed it - the terrorists. Your wife liked a post praising the October 7th massacre. She liked another post saying Tel Aviv shouldn't exist. You refused to condemn any of that. You falsely and repeatedly accuse Israel of genocide."
Netanyahu also referred to Mamdani’s previous calls for his arrest if he entered New York.
"Mr Mamdani, you tried to stop me from coming here. You tried to silence me. Well, you can't silence me; you can't silence the truth."
During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani pledged to direct the NYPD to arrest Netanyahu if he entered the city and enforce ICC warrants issued against the Israeli leader in 2024. He later acknowledged that the mayor of New York City lacks the legal authority to carry out an ICC arrest warrant and instead urged the federal government to intervene.
Mamdani has maintained his criticism of Netanyahu. In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour earlier this week, he said, “When it comes to Benjamin Netanyahu, I have described him as I believe him to be a war criminal and an architect of a horrific genocide of the Palestinian people."
He also reaffirmed his belief that the ICC warrant should be enforced.
“I do believe that that is something that should be honored, because what we want to see, and we’ve been talking about this today, is a faith in our politics, a faith in accountability," he said.
“If the International Criminal Court deems someone worthy of an arrest because of a violation of those laws, then who are we to say that anyone should be above that? And I think very clearly that everyone should be held accountable to it," Mamdani added.