Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used an address at the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 24, 2026, to launch a sharp broadside against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, accusing the mayor of fostering an unsafe environment for Jewish New Yorkers and attempting to silence him. The speech followed a mass walkout by diplomats who left the hall as Netanyahu approached the podium.
The General Assembly Address and Walkout
Diplomats emptied much of the General Assembly chamber as Netanyahu walked up to speak during the roughly 40-minute address. After condemning those who walked out as “moral cowards,” Netanyahu defended Israel’s military conduct in Gaza before pivoting directly to target Mamdani.
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“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!” Netanyahu said during the address.
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Netanyahu alleged that Mamdani’s election had made Jewish New Yorkers feel less secure. “Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York,” Netanyahu stated. He also criticized Mamdani for hosting streamer Hasan Piker and for social media posts liked by the mayor’s wife. While Netanyahu leveled these anecdotal claims, he did not present direct evidence linking Mamdani’s election to a rise in local hostility. Statistics from the New York City Police Department indicate that antisemitism has risen in the city over many years, with Jewish victims continuing to account for the majority of investigated hate crimes in recent months.
Netanyahu further invoked Mamdani’s past legal inquiries regarding an International Criminal Court arrest warrant. “Mr. Mamdani, you tried to stop me from coming here. You tried. You tried to silence me,” Netanyahu said. He also referred to “Mr. Mamdani’s Hamas buddies” as the public feud between the two leaders escalated.
Mayor Mamdani’s Response and the ICC Warrant
Mamdani responded swiftly after the speech in a public statement, accusing the prime minister of delivering “baseless lies.”
“As he has done time and again, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians,” Mamdani said. “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.”
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024, alleging responsibility for war crimes—including starvation as a method of warfare and intentionally directing attacks against civilians—along with crimes against humanity such as murder and persecution. Netanyahu and the Israeli government have rejected the allegations and contested the court’s jurisdiction.
The clash between the two figures builds on months of friction. While campaigning for mayor the previous year, Mamdani discussed the possibility of instructing the NYPD to execute an ICC arrest warrant if Netanyahu visited New York for the U.N. General Assembly, adding the caveat that any action would have to comply with local laws. After taking office, Mamdani asked city legal counsel to review whether the municipal government possessed the authority to carry out the warrant. In July, Mamdani announced that the review determined “the city does not have the authority to execute this warrant,” and he subsequently urged the federal government to join the ICC and enforce its warrants.
Mamdani has separately categorized Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel as “a horrific war crime,” while maintaining that warrants for alleged war crimes should be applied universally regardless of the accused party. In the days preceding Netanyahu’s U.N. appearance, Mamdani stated that he would not personally participate in street protests surrounding the visit, though he emphasized that New Yorkers retain the right to demonstrate.
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