(New York Jewish Week) — Jewish groups are criticizing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for a blistering attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made as part of a video acknowledging that the city does not have the legal authority to arrest the foreign leader when he visits New York.
Mamdani had promised during his campaign to detain Netanyahu if he set foot in the metropolis but on Tuesday night settled for lacerating Netanyahu in a two-minute video he posted to social media. In it, the mayor exhorted federal authorities to enforce the International Criminal Court warrant issued against Netanyahu in November 2024. There have been no ICC proceedings against Netanyahu since it was issued, let alone a finding of guilt.
“Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people,” Mamdani said to kick off the video, which contained a litany of allegations about Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
But after conducting a legal analysis, Mamdani noted, “It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant.” He continued, “The federal government, however, does, and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant.”
The mayor added, “I want to be equally clear: Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large.”
Mamdani’s comments come days after he said he was investigating ways to arrest Netanyahu if the Israeli prime minister visited the city. Netanyahu is expected to travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, which opens this year on Sept. 8.
The mayor’s efforts reignited criticism from Israel supporters in the city and beyond and caused President Donald Trump to throw cold water on Mamdani’s ambitions.
Mamdani’s video is drawing sharp criticism from Jewish leaders who say he is abusing his office to advance his intense anti-Israel views.
“Engaging in brinkmanship with the federal government is not a game,” tweeted Mark Treyger, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. “It risks inviting greater federal intervention on the streets of New York City, places the NYPD in an untenable position, further inflames tensions in the city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel, and distracts from urgent local responsibilities.”
“Mayor Mamdani did not simply express a personal political opinion. He used the authority, symbolism and credibility of the mayor’s office to issue what amounted to an official public address declaring that the democratically elected leader of the world’s only Jewish state is a ‘war criminal’ who is ‘not welcome in New York City,’” the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a statement. “That is a profound misuse of the office entrusted to him by all New Yorkers.”
On Wednesday morning, UJA-Federation of NY condemned the video and said Mamdani is making New York Jews unsafe. (UJA is a funder of 70 Faces Media, the parent company of New York Jewish Week.)
“Mayor Mamdani: New Yorkers elected a mayor to lead this city — not to make Israel the centerpiece of your political grandstanding. Your video is rife with distortions and disinformation,” the federation said. “And at a time of rising antisemitism, repeatedly singling out and vilifying the world’s only Jewish state for perceived political benefit is repugnant, puts Jews at greater risk — and leaves many Jewish New Yorkers feeling targeted and unwelcome in the city we call home.”
The saga over whether and how to try to arrest Netanyahu adds to a growing list of instances in which Mamdani’s vociferous anti-Israel views have come into tension with his legal responsibilities as the city’s top leader and his stated belief in the rule of law.
This spring, he responded to protesters targeting Israeli real estate events held in synagogues by saying that he agreed with the content of their criticism while deploying police to prevent clashes, emphasizing that New Yorkers must be safe while entering their houses of worship.
In the new video, Mamdani accuses Netanyahu of “the killing of more than 73,000 people, for the maiming of tens of thousands of children as those who survive undergo amputation without anesthesia, for the targeting of neonatal hospitals and maternity care centers, denying newborns even the chance to live.”
Mamdani also accused Netanyahu of blocking aid to Gaza, saying he was responsible for “the countless people he starved” and “for the gunning down of hundreds of aid workers and journalists.”
The video represents an inflammatory description of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, where its military operations launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel yielded widespread devastation and a steep death toll.
Israel rejects allegations of starvation and the intentional killing of aid workers and journalists.
Its ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, responded swiftly to Mamdani’s video, posting on X, “Zohran Mamdani, ENOUGH. Enough with the blood libels. Enough with the attacks on Jewish organizations. Enough with the outreach to the Iranian regime. You were elected to serve New Yorkers, not Hamas’ propaganda. Do your job!”
Netanyahu has yet to comment on Mamadani’s video, but last week he responded to the mayor’s attacks against him, calling the ICC a “kangaroo court,” and that Mamdani, like ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, “appears interested in diverting public attention from his follies and attacking the leader of the Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East.”
Mamdani’s critics on the left, meanwhile, have accused him of inadequately pressing the case against Israel since becoming mayor. Nerdeen Kiswani, the founder of the radical pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, responded to the video by sharing a list of actions she believes Mamdani has the capacity to take, including shutting down the real estate events and investigating nonprofits that support West Bank settlements.
“The question isn’t just whether Mamdani can arrest Netanyahu,” she tweeted. “It’s whether he’ll use every power he does have.”