Netanyahu accuses NYC Mayor Mamdani of ‘fomenting hate’ after arrest threat

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired back at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday, accusing the newly elected Democratic mayor of “fomenting hate” after Mamdani threatened — then retreated from — a pledge to arrest Netanyahu if he set foot in the city.

Netanyahu’s sharp response

In a statement posted to social media, Netanyahu called Mamdani’s original threat “a disgrace” and accused him of stoking antisemitism. “Instead of fighting the hatred directed at Jews in New York City, Mayor Mamdani is fomenting it,” Netanyahu wrote, adding that Mamdani’s remarks were part of a broader pattern of hostility toward Israel from the American left.

The Israeli prime minister’s office did not indicate whether Netanyahu has any planned visits to New York in the near future.

Mamdani’s walkback last week

The confrontation started after Mamdani, who took office in January 2025, said he would use the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Netanyahu as grounds to detain him on a visit to New York. But it didn’t hold. Within days, Mamdani acknowledged he had no legal authority to act on an ICC warrant — the United States is not a member of the court, and domestic law enforcement agencies aren’t bound by its orders.

“I was wrong about the legal mechanism,” Mamdani told reporters last Wednesday. He didn’t walk back his underlying criticism of Netanyahu or Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 46,000 people according to the Gaza Health Ministry since October 2023.

Still, the retreat gave Netanyahu’s team an opening they moved quickly to exploit.

A political flashpoint

The exchange is the latest collision between Netanyahu and a growing faction of American progressive politicians who’ve publicly condemned Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Mamdani, 33, became the first Muslim mayor of New York City and ran on a platform that included sharp criticism of U.S. military aid to Israel. His arrest pledge — even if legally hollow — resonated with a significant slice of his voter base.

A spokesperson for the New York City Mayor’s office said Monday that Mamdani “stands by his moral position” on the ICC warrant, even while accepting the legal limitations on his power.

Netanyahu’s allies in the U.S. Congress have called on the Biden and now the Trump administration to push back harder against what they describe as attempts to delegitimize Israel through international legal bodies.

What comes next

The war of words is unlikely to cool anytime soon. Netanyahu faces ongoing ICC proceedings, and American mayors and governors have increasingly weighed in on the conflict — sometimes overstepping their actual authority in the process.

For Mamdani, the episode was a stumble in his first months in office, handing critics a concrete example of what they call performative politics over workable policy. Whether it dents his standing with New York’s progressive base remains to be seen.