Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, is “fomenting hate” by calling the Israeli prime minister a war criminal who should be arrested over Israel’s 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 on Wednesday 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 the Fox News channel’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. “But he’s trying to turn one group against the other.”
The prime minister has become an increasingly polarizing figure over Israel’s war in Gaza, which was ignited by the ۷ October ۲۰۲۳ deadly attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants. Israel also joined the US in starting the war against Iran on ۲۸ February before launching a ground invasion in southern Lebanon in response to fire from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group.
Netanyahu on Sunday dismissed the international criminal court (ICC)’s war crimes charges against him as “bogus”. He pointed to sexual misconduct allegations against the ICC’s top prosecutor, who was removed from that post on Friday, and said the warrant was an attempt to divert attention.
Mamdani’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
Netanyahu on Sunday also said he was concerned that once-bipartisan political support for Israel in the US is at risk, particularly as progressive and far-left Democrats aligned with the Mamdani wing of the party splinter.
He also warned against rising antisemitism in the US and other western countries, saying that when he talks to people in New York City, home to the second-largest Jewish population in the world, “Jews feel very uncomfortable”.
“And I think it’s wrong,” he said. “The whole thing is wrong.”
Throughout his ۲۰۲۵ mayoral election campaign, Mamdani said he would seek to order the city’s police to execute the ICC’s arrest warrant over Netanyahu’s role in the war in Gaza.
“I want to be equally clear, Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large,” he said in his video message on Wednesday.
He told New Yorkers that he understood their frustration and that expressions of protest is something the city would “always respect”.
The Hague-based court has accused Netanyahu, his former defense minister and the late leader of Hamas of crimes against humanity. The Palestinian territory’s health ministry says more than ۷۳,۰۰۰ people have been killed in Israel’s offensive – roughly half of them women and children. About ۱,۲۰۰ people, most of them civilians, were killed in the initial Hamas attack on Israel.
Trump on Monday told Netanyahu in a social media post that he “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America”.
Netanyahu is expected in Washington DC on Monday to meet with Trump and attend funeral services for Lindsey Graham, the late Republican senator.
Graham, a leading defense hawk and strong supporter of Israel, died suddenly on ۱۱ July of a likely torn aorta. Netanyahu called him a “great patriot” and one of Israel’s “greatest friends”.
