Washington — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu berated New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday in a contentious address to the United Nations General Assembly that saw many delegates walk out before it even began.
Netanyahu accused Mamdani, a longtime critic of Israel and supporter of Palestinian independence, of being antisemitic. The mayor has insisted in the past that he opposes “hate or bigotry of any kind.”
“Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of the city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York,” Netanyahu said in his U.N. address. “They talk to me. They tell me, ‘This is not the city we remember.'”
“Shame on you,” Netanyahu said. “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.”
During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani vowed to carry out an international arrest warrant against the Israeli leader on his next visit to the city, declaring him a war criminal in response to Israel’s actions in Gaza. But Mamdani conceded in July that New York officials did not have the legal authority to arrest Netanyahu.
Netanyahu’s address to the U.N. marks the first time he has visited New York since Mamdani took office in January.
Netanyahu, who denies accusations of genocide in Gaza, also addressed Mamdani’s criticism of his government.
“You falsely, repeatedly accuse Israel of genocide,” Netanyahu said. “You try to stop me from coming here. You try to silence me. Well, you can’t silence me. You can’t silence the truth. Here’s a simple truth: Israel didn’t commit genocide. Israel prevented genocide.”
In a statement after the address, 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.”
Shortly before Netanyahu took the stage, Mamdani shared a video about planting an olive tree at Gracie Mansion with Palestinian families from Gaza.
“May peace be our future,” he said.
