Mayor Zohran Mamdani rejected Netanyahu’s accusations and branded the Israeli prime minister the “architect of horrific genocide” ahead of his planned UN address in New York.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani answered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s video rebuke on Tuesday by rejecting the charges and launching a sharper counterattack of his own.
Fox News Digital reported that Mamdani told reporters Netanyahu’s claims were false, then pointed to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant and accused the Israeli leader of directing mass killing of Palestinians, language he has used before as Netanyahu prepares to speak at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The exchange keeps a public feud alive at the worst possible time for a mayor of America’s largest city: a wartime ally’s elected leader is about to arrive, and City Hall is picking the fight.
Earlier Tuesday, Netanyahu posted a video on X aimed straight at Mamdani.
Netanyahu said:
"Shame on you, Mr. Mamdani. Shame on you for supporting the Hamas terrorist monsters who butchered our people. Shame on you for inciting riots against New York Jews,"
He added that he was coming to the U.N. to defend Israeli soldiers and to confront the mayor directly.
Netanyahu said:
"I'm coming to the U.N. I am going to tell the truth about our heroic soldiers, and I'm going to tell you the truth about you,"
Those lines set the stakes. A sitting prime minister accused New York’s mayor of backing the terrorists who murdered Israelis and of stoking unrest against Jews in the city Netanyahu is about to visit.
When reporters asked about the video, Mamdani did not soften.
Mamdani said:
"We all know that what the prime minister has said in that video is not true,"
He then shifted to the court case and a sweeping moral claim.
Mamdani said:
"What we do know to actually be the truth when it comes to the prime minister is that he is the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity."
And he went further:
"And as the prime minister, he is the architect of horrific genocide against Palestinians,"
Mamdani added a fresh battlefield claim:
"And just a few days ago, his military killed an 11-year-old boy in what is deemed to be a safe zone in Gaza. So that is what I have to say to his video."
That is the mayor of New York, on the record, calling the leader of a U.S. ally the architect of genocide and treating an ICC warrant as settled moral fact. The Israeli government has rejected the ICC allegations and challenged the court’s actions. Mamdani offered no independent proof in these remarks for the specific Gaza claim he attached to the feud.
This was not a one-day outburst. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant in November 2024 over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, with Netanyahu named as a subject as described in the coverage. Israel has fought the case.
Earlier this year, Mamdani explored whether New York City could execute that warrant if Netanyahu came to town. He later acknowledged the city could not enforce it on its own. Campaign rhetoric still treated the warrant as a political weapon. Caption material around a Fox News interview framed him as willing to arrest Netanyahu or uphold the warrant if the Israeli leader visited.
Over the summer he made the welcome mat explicit. Mamdani said:
"I want to be equally clear: Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large,"
A mayor does not get to run foreign policy or freelance international criminal process. He does set a tone for the five boroughs. That tone has been open hostility to Israel’s elected leader while a U.N. visit loomed.
In July, when asked what New Yorkers frustrated with Netanyahu should do during a visit, Mamdani pointed to protest.
Mamdani said:
"One of the bedrocks of our city is protest,"
He continued:
"It is something that has been a part of what makes our city so special, that New Yorkers can express themselves whether they are in support or in opposition no matter on whatever topic."
Last week he narrowed the message. He said he had no plans to join protests and had not told people to take the streets.
Mamdani said:
"To New Yorkers, I have never encouraged them to protest,"
And:
"What I have always told them is that they have the right to do so in the city."
Netanyahu’s video charged “inciting riots against New York Jews.” Mamdani’s July comments celebrated protest as a city bedrock; his later comments insisted he never encouraged it. The sequence leaves City Hall defending the right to agitate while denying any push, after months of branding Netanyahu a war criminal unfit to set foot in New York.
On Monday, President Donald Trump met Mamdani inside Gracie Mansion. The mayor’s office said the talk covered issues affecting the city, including affordability and economic development. A photo caption placed the meeting on Monday, Sept. 21, 2026.
Asked later whether they discussed Netanyahu, Mamdani kept the focus on New York and restated his own position.
Mamdani said:
"And when it comes to the prime minister, though, I've made very clear where I stand on that,"
Clear, in his record, means unwelcome labels, ICC talk, and now a genocide charge on the eve of a U.N. appearance. The White House meeting did not produce a public retreat from that line.
Netanyahu is expected in the city to address the United Nations General Assembly. The mayor has already told him he is not welcome and answered a direct video rebuke by repeating the harshest charges in his arsenal.
New Yorkers can judge whether a mayor’s job is fixing the subway and keeping streets safe, or prosecuting a foreign war from the steps of City Hall while an ally’s prime minister comes to speak.
