By Anjali Sharma
UNITED NATIONS – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday exchanged a fresh war of words with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani at the UN General Assembly address in New York.
He rejected allegations of genocide in Gaza and accused the mayor NYC Mamdani of helping create an environment in which Jewish New Yorkers no longer felt safe.
NYC Muslim mayor Zohran Mamdani hit back after the address by invoking the ICC arrest warrant against Netanyahu.
Qatar accused the Israeli leader of trying to divert attention from Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories.
The confrontation unfolded during a heated address that resulted in a walkout by dozens of delegates.
Netanyahu targeted Qatar and Iran, defend Israel’s military actions and praise US President Donald Trump as Israel’s strongest partner.
Mamdani responded after the speech by accused Netanyahu of using “baseless lies” to defend Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
Qatar also rejected Netanyahu’s accusations, stated they were an attempt to divert attention from Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Netanyahu singled out Mamdani during his address, rejected the New York mayor’s allegations against Israel over the Gaza war.
“Shame on you for inverting victim and aggressor,” Netanyahu said.
He accused Mamdani of “spitting in the face of truth” and rejected the allegation that Israel was committing genocide.
“Israel didn’t commit genocide. Israel prevented genocide,” Netanyahu said, before alleged that Hamas would have committed genocide against Israelis had it not been stopped.
Netanyahu also directly challenged Mamdani over the situation of the city’s Jewish community.
“Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York,” he said.
He accused the mayor of praising people convicted of supporting Hamas and associating with individuals who had made inflammatory statements about the United States and Israel.
Netanyahu also levelled accusations against Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, over social media posts she had allegedly liked.
Mamdani rejected Netanyahu’s accusations after the address and returned to his criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
“As he has done time and again, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitise his genocide of Palestinians,” Mamdani said in a statement.
He also pointed to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister.
“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,” Mamdani said.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024.
The court said there were reasonable grounds to believe he bore criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Netanyahu remains listed as “at large” by the court.
The drama began before Netanyahu had moved into the substance of his address.
Dozens of delegates left the General Assembly hall as the Israeli prime minister approached the podium. Netanyahu responded from the rostrum.
“If there are any other moral cowards who haven’t yet left this hall, please do so now,” he said.
The walkout came as Netanyahu faced criticism over Israel’s military campaigns and the war in Gaza.
He used the speech to reject that criticism and defend his government’s actions.
Netanyahu reserved some of his strongest praise for US President Donald Trump.
“In this battle against the barbarians, we’ve had no greater partner than President Trump,” he said.
He thanked Trump for what he called his “bold leadership” and defended the joint US-Israeli military action against Iran.
Netanyahu said the decision to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities had been difficult to execute but straightforward for him politically.
“Devastating Iran’s nuclear facilities was hard,” Netanyahu said.
“But for me, it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make as prime minister. Because if we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead.”
He accused countries whose representatives walked out of his address of hypocrisy, claiming some of their leaders had privately thanked Israel for its actions against Iran.
Netanyahu also predicted the eventual fall of Iran’s government.
“This evil regime will fall, and all of us will celebrate that day,” he said.
He told the General Assembly that the “power of the people” would ultimately overcome those in power in Iran.
Netanyahu also displayed a Starlink terminal during his address and said he would leave it with the president of the General Assembly to be passed to the Iranian delegation.
Qatar hit back after Netanyahu accused it of spending billions to spread hostility towards Israel and the West and criticised it over its links with Hamas.
Netanyahu claimed Qatar’s aim was to “brainwash young minds to hate Israel, hate America, and hate the West”.
Doha rejected the accusations, described Netanyahu’s remarks as an attempt to shift attention away from Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The exchange added another front to an address dominated by Netanyahu’s disputes with international and domestic US critics of Israel.
