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Mayor Zohran Mamdani was accused of peddling Hamas propaganda by a prominent Jewish rights group — lambasting his attacks on Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a shameless “televised political spectacle.”
In a video address aired on social media, Mamdani admitted that he doesn’t have the authority to arrest Netanyahu during his upcoming visit to New York, but still took the opportunity to brand Israel’s leader a “war criminal” who is “not welcome” in the city.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024 for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity over the war in Gaza.
“That is a profound misuse of the office entrusted to him by all New Yorkers,” wrote the Simon Wiesenthal Center in a response to Hizzoner’s address.
“After acknowledging that New York City has no independent legal authority to execute the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant, the mayor nevertheless chose to transform that legal reality into a televised political spectacle,” continued the statement, which also slammed Mamdani for making no mention of Hamas or the October 7 attacks which triggered Israel’s military offensive.
The group accused Mamdani of repeatedly singling out Israel “while using the prestige of his office to legitimize rhetoric that further isolates the Jewish state and deepens division here at home.”
Its statement also urged Mamdani to focus on issues that affect New Yorkers — including Jewish residents — rather than become a spokesperson for a global anti-Israel front.
“At a time when Jewish New Yorkers are experiencing alarming levels of antisemitism, harassment and intimidation, they deserve a mayor who refrains from fomenting hatred against the world’s only Jewish country while maintaining the fiction that this is not anti-Jewish,” it wrote.
“New Yorkers elected a mayor, not a prosecutor of foreign leaders. Mayor Mamdani should spend less time trying to demonize only one leader and one country from City Hall and more time protecting the New Yorkers he was elected to serve,” the statement concluded.
Mayor Mamdani’s office did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
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