Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview on Sunday that he intends to travel to New York in September to address the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session.
This comes after New York mayor Zohran Mamdani recently declared that the Israeli leader is “not welcome” in the city. He also called on the US federal government to enforce an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against Netanyahu.
Netanyahu clarified his intentions of travelling to New York for the UNGA in the interview to Fox News and said, “I intend to come and speak the truth, speak for Israel and for the Israeli-American alliance from the podium of the United Nations.”
The Israeli PM also dismissed the International Criminal Court’s war crimes charges against him as “bogus.”
Furthermore, he accused Mamdani of aligning with “Hamas murderers” and supporting the October 7 attack on Israel.
“What Mamdani is supporting, his wife, his family – he celebrated October 7th massacre, the worst massacre against Jews since the Holocaust,” the Israeli PM said.
“He’s basically supporting – he tries to say that he doesn’t – but he’s supporting the Hamas murderers who raped our women, then beheaded them, burnt babies alive, slaughtered our men, took innocent people hostage, 251 men, women, children, babies. That’s who he’s supporting,” Netanyahu continued.
The Israeli PM criticised Mamdani’s leadership as the NYC mayor, and said, “Mamdani is aligning himself with the criminals… but the worst thing is that he’s tormenting his own citizens, his own voters.”
“I’ve been to New York so many times over the years, I’ve met all the New York mayors. They all saw themselves as mayors of all New Yorkers, not putting – pitting one part of the population against the other,” he added.
Mamdani’s charge against Netanyahu
During his mayoral campaign last year, Mamdani said he would seek to order local police to enforce the ICC’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu.
“As I’ve said, I agree with the ICC that Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested and tried for his crimes, as I do for anyone else charged by the ICC,” Mamdani said in a video message earlier.
Mamdani also acknowledged that the city does not have the “independent legal authority” to arrest Netanyahu and called on federal authorities to take charge of the matter.
“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.
Netanyahu accuses Mamdani of ‘fomenting hate’
Netanyahu, in the interview, asserted that Mamdani’s remarks create a dangerous environment for Jewish residents in New York.
“He’s fomenting hate. He’s supposed to be the mayor of all New Yorkers: Jews, Christians, Muslims, everyone. But he’s trying to turn one group against the other, and he’s foisting hate and fear,” Netanyahu warned.
“I speak to Jewish Americans in New York, and they’re afraid right now,” he added.
“I don’t think it’s accidental that after he made this hate speech against Israel and against me, the next day a Jew is stabbed coming out of a synagogue,” Netanyahu said.
What happened in New York earlier?
A man identified as Raul Morales, 51, was charged with two counts of attempted murder in the second degree as a hate crime after two men were stabbed Thursday afternoon in broad daylight on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, according to a CNN report.
Prosecutors alleged in court that the accused approached an Asian man (57) from behind and shouted “Allahu Akbar” before stabbing him with a knife.
Four blocks from this attack, Morales stabbed a Jewish man wearing a kippah who had just left the synagogue with a screwdriver, the report stated.
