Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is “fomenting hate” by calling the Israeli leader a war criminal who should be arrested over the war in Gaza if he visits the city for the United Nations General Assembly.
Netanyahu said he intends to be in New York in September to address the annual UN gathering of world leaders, despite the mayor’s suggestion that he is not welcome.
Mamdani said last week that while New York City does not have legal authority to execute an arrest warrant issued by the world’s top war-crimes court, he encouraged the federal government to do so.
“He’s supposed to be the mayor of all New Yorkers — Jews, Christians, Muslims, everyone,” Netanyahu said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo. “But he’s trying to turn one group against the other.”
Accusing Mamdani of “supporting the Hamas murderers,” Netanyahu said he would be attending the UN General Assembly “to come and speak the truth, speak for Israel and the Israeli-American alliance from the podium of the United Nations.”
The prime minister has become an increasingly polarizing figure over Israel’s war in Gaza, which was ignited by the October 7, 2023, deadly attack on southern Israel by the Hamas terror group.
