Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he planned to attend the UN General Assembly in New York City this autumn, despite the city’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, making threats to arrest him.
Mamdani walked back that threat last week, acknowledging he lacked the legal power to arrest Netanyahu on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, the world’s top war-crimes court.
The Israeli leader told Fox News on Sunday that he was “not concerned” about Mamdani’s previous pledge and accused the mayor of “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,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu referenced a pair of stabbings in New York on Thursday, in which a suspect stabbed a Jewish man and an Asian man just blocks apart.
The suspect allegedly shouted the phrase “Allahu akbar” while committing the stabbings, according to police. He has been charged with hate crimes relating to each victim.
Both men survived the attacks, which drew condemnations from the city’s Jewish and Asian American leaders.
In the aftermath, Netanyahu said Jewish New Yorkers were “afraid right now.”
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mamdani, a staunch supporter of Palestinian rights, made his opposition to the Israeli military operation in Gaza a central plank of his campaign last year. In an address last week, he called Netanyahu a “war criminal.”
As part of that platform while campaigning, Mamdani promised to enforce a 2024 arrest warrant for Netanyahu from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which accused the prime minister of committing war crimes in Gaza.
Israel has denied charges that it has committed war crimes in Gaza, and Netanyahu called the charges “bogus”.
The Israeli military entered Gaza after the Hamas-led attack in Israel on 7 October 2023. About 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
Over 73,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, including more than 21,000 children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.
Last week, after the New York Times pressed Mamdani on his pledge to arrest Netanyahu, Mamdani said his administration had reviewed the law and found: “We do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant”.
Mamdani urged the federal government to arrest the prime minister, and said: “Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City.”
By BBC News
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