Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Blames Mayor Zohran Mamdani for Jews Feeling Unsafe in NYC: ‘Shame’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just made his first visit to New York City since Zohran Mamdani became mayor — and wasted no time slamming the politician in a fiery speech at the United Nations.

Netanyahu, 76, used his Thursday, September 24 speech to respond to the mayor repeatedly labeling him a war criminal over the PM’s actions in Gaza.

“Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of the city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York,” Israel’s leader said in his address, per Reuters. “They talk to me. They tell me, ‘This is not the city we remember.'”

“Shame on you,” he continued. “Shame on you for distorting the facts, shame on you for inverting victim and aggressor, shame on you for spitting in the face of truth.”

“You tried ​to stop me from coming here. You tried. You tried to silence me. Well, you can’t silence me. You can’t silence the truth,” Netanyahu added. “Here’s a simple truth: ​Israel didn’t commit genocide. Israel prevented genocide. To all those spreading these lies about my country and about our brave soldiers, whether they sit in this hall ​or in the office of the antisemitic mayor of New York, I say this: Shame on you!”

His comments come after Mamdani reiterated his hope for Netanyahu to be arrested earlier this week.

“When it comes to Benjamin Netanyahu, I have described him as I believe him to be,” Mamdani, 34, told CNN on Monday, September 21. “A war criminal and an architect of a horrific genocide of the Palestinian people.”

The comment echoes a pledge Mamdani made on the campaign trail, as Globe previously reported, when he vowed to have Netanyahu arrested if he came to New York City. But the mayor conceded he lacks the power to enforce it, acknowledging he doesn’t have the “authority to carry out the ICC’s (International Criminal Court) warrant” against the prime minister.

The ICC issued the warrant in November 2024, accusing him of war crimes as part of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. At the same time, they also issued a warrant on similar charges for Hamas leader Mohammed Deif.

In a new statement after Netanyahu’s latest speech, per Reuters, Mamdani said: “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.”