Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will travel to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly despite calls for his arrest by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“I’m going to New York,” Netanyahu said during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “I’m going to speak the truth in front of this hate-spewing elected official who’s pitting one group of New Yorkers against the others. He’s turning them against New York Jews.”
“I mean, what are we, in the 1930s? What is this, you know? So much hate, so many lies,” he said.
Netanyahu added that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a “corrupt, evil organization.”
“It had a prosecutor who issued arrest warrants against me and our former defense minister as war criminals, supposedly for starvation, starving the people of Gaza,” he explained. “We gave a million tons of food for them.”
Mamdani recently said that he believes Netanyahu is a “war criminal” who “belongs in The Hague.”
“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” he told The New York Times. “He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court, and what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these past many years.”
Mamdani made similar remarks during his mayoral campaign. “As mayor, New York City would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu. This is a city that our values are in line with international law. It’s time that our actions are also,” he said at the time. “It’s time that we actually step up and make clear what we are willing to do to showcase the leadership that is sorely missing in the federal administration.”
President Trump has ensured that Netanyahu will not be arrested.
