Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he still plans to travel to New York in September, brushing aside what he described as “hate-spewing” Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s call for him to be arrested over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
“First of all, I’m going to New York,” Netanyahu told Fox News host Sean Hannity when asked about Mamdani’s statement last week that the Israeli leader is “not welcome” in the city because of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued in 2024.
“I’m definitely going there,” Netanyahu said, adding that he intends to “speak the truth” in the face of what he called a “hate-spewing elected official” who is “pitting one group of New Yorkers against the others.”
Netanyahu went further, accusing Mamdani of directing his supporters “against New York Jews.”
“I mean, what are we in the 1930s? What is this?” Netanyahu said. “You know, so much hate, so many lies, and you know the big lie is about the ICC … that’s a corrupt, evil organization.”
In a video statement released July 21, Mamdani acknowledged that he does not have the legal authority to arrest Netanyahu if he comes to New York, but he nonetheless denounced him as an unwelcome “war criminal.”
The pro-Palestinian socialist mayor also urged the Trump administration to enforce the ICC warrant and arrest Netanyahu, even though the US government does not recognize the court’s authority.
Netanyahu said his New York trip is planned for September, when world leaders gather for the United Nations General Assembly.
The Israeli leader was in Washington Tuesday for late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s funeral.
Netanyahu praised Graham for being “absolutely unapologetic and unabashed in supporting the American-Israel alliance.”
“He believed that Israel’s security and America’s security were intertwined,” Netanyahu said, adding that Graham “couldn’t care about the winds of fashion.”
“He couldn’t care about social media and all these bots that try to play the American people for fools,” the prime minister continued. “He said you have one real ally in the Middle East and in the world, Israel.”
Netanyahu met with President Trump at the White House before Graham’s funeral and described his sit-down with the commander-in-chief as “one of the best meetings that we’ve had.”
“I always hate to disappoint our would-be critics who are trying to find, you know, cracks in our alliance,” he said, likening the current state of the US-Israel alliance to a “wall of granite.”
“The president is so clear … we have a common commitment. We don’t want to see this fanatic regime in Tehran have nuclear weapons to threaten every American and to threaten the peace of the world and to threaten the existence of Israel,” Netanyahu continued. “So we have a common goal, and it’s going to be achieved either through diplomatic means or other means and we’re both committed to that.”
