Netanyahu accuses Mamdani of ‘fomenting hate’ in calls for PM’s arrest | US news
Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani “incites hatred” by calling the Israeli prime minister a war criminal who should be arrested for Israel’s war in Gaza if he visits the city for the United Nations general assembly.
Netanyahu said he plans to be in New York in September to address the annual U.N. meeting of world leaders, despite the mayor’s suggestion that he was not welcome. Mamdani said on Wednesday that although New York City does not have the legal authority to enforce the arrest warrant issued by the world’s highest war crimes court, he is encouraging the federal government to do so.
“He needs to be the mayor of all New Yorkers, Jews, Christians, Muslims, everyone,” Netanyahu said. in question with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. “But he is trying to turn one group against another.”
The prime minister has become an increasingly polarizing figure over Israel’s war on Gaza, sparked by a deadly attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel also joined the United States in launching a war against Iran on February 28, before launching a ground offensive into southern Lebanon in response to fire from the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
Netanyahu on Sunday dismissed the international criminal court’s (ICC) war crimes charges against him as “fake”. 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 Sunday.
Netanyahu also said Sunday that he was concerned that the once bipartisan political support for Israel in the United States was at risk, especially as progressive and far-left Democrats aligned with the splintering Mamdani wing of the party.
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 that’s wrong,” he said. “Everything is wrong.”
Mamdani said during the 2025 mayoral election campaign that he would order the city police to execute the ICC arrest warrant regarding Netanyahu’s role in the war in Gaza.
“I want to be equally clear that Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York, nor are other war criminals,” he said in a video message on Wednesday.
He told New Yorkers he understood their frustration and that expressions of protest were something the city “will always respect.”
The Hague-based court accused former defense minister and late Hamas leader Netanyahu of crimes against humanity. The Palestinian territory’s health ministry says more than 73,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, about half of them women and children. Hamas’s first attack on Israel killed approximately 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
In a social media post on Monday, Trump told Netanyahu that he “will not be arrested under any circumstances while in the United States.”
Netanyahu is expected to meet with Trump in Washington DC on Monday and attend the funeral services of the late Republican senator Lindsey Graham.
Graham, a leading defense hawk and strong supporter of Israel, died suddenly on July 11 from an aortic rupture. Netanyahu in the name calling him “a great patriot” and one of Israel’s “greatest friends.”
