Mamdani Accuses Netanyahu of Spreading 'Baseless Lies' After U.N. Speech

New York: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel again attacked New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani during a speech to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, accusing the mayor of antisemitism and saying his criticism of Israel had endangered New York’s Jewish population.Netanyahu said that since Mamdani took office, “many Jews no longer feel safe in New York.”Mamdani, New York’s first Muslim mayor, has long been an outspoken critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and has denounced Netanyahu as a war criminal. Netanyahu has repeatedly assailed the mayor over his views, and many of the claims the prime minister made during his speech echoed his past attacks on Mamdani.Mamdani’s stance on Israel has made him a potent political foil for the prime minister, who is in the midst of a critical reelection campaign. The tension between the two men grew in the days before Netanyahu’s UN appearance, with the mayor again referring to the prime minister as a war criminal in an interview and calling for his arrest, and Netanyahu releasing a video attacking the mayor.Over several minutes in a roughly 37-minute speech Thursday, Netanyahu took particular aim at Mamdani’s assertion that Israel’s conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip amounted to genocide.A UN commission, as well as international and Israeli human rights groups, have concluded that Israel committed genocide in Gaza during the war there, which was sparked by the deadly Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.Netanyahu has vigorously rejected those claims, and in his speech Thursday said that “accusing Israel of genocide is the greatest lie of the century.”He also mentioned Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, who has been criticized for liking social media posts supporting the Palestinian cause immediately after the October 7 attacks.In response to Netanyahu, Mamdani accused the prime minister of using his U.N. 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,” the mayor said in a statement.Mamdani did not attend Netanyahu’s speech. While it was taking place, he was scheduled to join the prime minister of the Netherlands for “a discussion with LGBTQ+ youth.”Shortly before the speech began, Mamdani posted a wordless, one-minute video on social media that showed him planting an olive tree at Gracie Mansion, his official residence, and eating dinner with Palestinian families from Gaza.”May peace be our future,” the mayor wrote in a caption.Netanyahu steps up threats against directors of Gaza documentary ‘NAZA’Although he is campaigning far from New York, Netanyahu has repeatedly invoked Mamdani. His Likud party has put Mamdani’s face on billboards and campaign posters in Israel, alongside images of the leaders of Iran, Turkey and Hezbollah.Earlier this month, the prime minister posted an AI-generated campaign video that portrayed the mayor celebrating at the prospect of Netanyahu’s electoral defeat alongside President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei of Iran and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority.Earlier this week, Netanyahu released a video broadside against the mayor, falsely accusing him of supporting Hamas and inciting anti-Jewish riots in New York.Mamdani vowed during last year’s mayoral campaign to execute an international warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest the next time the prime minister visited New York. Netanyahu was accused of war crimes in 2024 by the International Criminal Court; he has denied the charges.Mamdani backed off on his pledge in July, acknowledging in a video that the city does not have legal authority to make the arrest, but he urged the federal government to do so. In a Fox News appearance after the video was posted, Netanyahu accused the mayor of “fomenting hate.”The mayor has condemned Hamas as a terrorist organization and described the Oct. 7 attacks as “a horrific war crime.” And while there has been an increase in antisemitic hate crimes in New York in recent years, as well as anti-Israel protests that have sometimes turned chaotic, there have been no riots targeting Jews during Mamdani’s time in public office.In the first week of Mamdani’s term, the government of Israel accused him of antisemitism after he revoked two executive orders signed by his predecessor, Eric Adams, which barred city agencies from boycotting Israel and defined some criticism of Israel as antisemitic. Mamdani said at the time that “protecting Jewish New Yorkers is going to be a focus of my administration.”Mamdani’s continued criticism of Israel has nevertheless alienated or unsettled many Jewish New Yorkers and has drawn warnings from Jewish leaders who believe his commentary inflames antisemitism. But progressive Jewish groups that support the mayor have praised his positions.Brad Lander, one of Mamdani’s key allies and the Democratic House nominee in a Brooklyn and Manhattan district, called Netanyahu’s attacks on the mayor “appalling.””Antisemitism is genuinely on the rise, and a real strategy is needed to do something about it,” said Lander, who is Jewish. “It makes Israelis and American Jews less safe for Netanyahu to weaponize charges of antisemitism so cynically instead of facing accountability for his own crimes.”When Mamdani admitted that the city could not arrest Netanyahu, he all but encouraged protests against the prime minister, prompting questions about whether he might make an appearance at any of the demonstrations planned to coincide with Netanyahu’s speech Thursday afternoon. The mayor opted not to attend any protests before the speech.

Source: Deccan Herald