Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned his United Nations General Assembly speech into a direct, public indictment of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, accusing him of fostering antisemitism, praising Hamas supporters, and making the city unsafe for Jews.
Netanyahu devoted a substantial portion of his Thursday address to Mamdani, calling him "the antisemitic mayor of New York" and listing a series of specific allegations about the first-term mayor's associations, his wife's social media activity, and his public statements on Israel. The speech, the Washington Free Beacon reported, was largely boycotted by Arab nations and other anti-Israel countries, but Netanyahu made clear his target was closer to home than Tehran.
The confrontation had been building for months. Mamdani campaigned on a promise to arrest Netanyahu based on an International Criminal Court warrant for alleged war crimes in Gaza. In July, the mayor delivered an address from Gracie Mansion conceding that his lawyers told him he lacked the legal authority to carry out the arrest, but added that Netanyahu was not welcome in New York. The U.S. is not a party to the Rome Statute that established the ICC, and federal authorities are not expected to enforce the warrant. ICC judges and prosecutors are themselves under formal U.S. sanctions.
Netanyahu did not deal in generalities. He named individuals and cited specific incidents, building a case that Mamdani surrounds himself with people hostile to Israel and to Jews.
"You praise criminals convicted of supporting Hamas. You count as friends people like Hasan Piker, who said America deserved 9/11. Some friends you have."
He then turned to Mamdani's relationship with Motaz Azaiza, a Gaza journalist. Netanyahu alleged that Mamdani invited Azaiza into his home, and described Azaiza as someone who filmed Hamas fighters beating and torturing Israeli hostages, then refused to publish the footage to protect the attackers. A Jerusalem Post report documented Azaiza's admission that he withheld October 7 footage showing Hamas abusing Israelis.
Netanyahu also referenced reporting by the Washington Free Beacon's Jon Levine about social media activity by Mamdani's wife. Netanyahu told the assembly:
"Your wife liked a post praising the October 7 massacre. She liked another post saying Tel Aviv shouldn't exist."
He added that Mamdani refused to condemn any of it.
The Israeli prime minister framed Mamdani's conduct not as a diplomatic disagreement but as a direct threat to Jewish residents of New York City. He said Jews had told him personally that the city had changed under Mamdani's leadership.
"Since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York. They talk to me. They tell me this isn't the city we remember. It changed so quickly."
He pressed further, connecting Mamdani's rhetoric to street-level violence:
"The lies you and other antisemites spread about the Jews, and the Jewish state, have real consequences. In New York, Jews are threatened on the way to synagogue. Jews have been stabbed in the streets. Jews are demonized. They're targeted simply for being Jews."
Crime data backs up at least part of that picture. Anti-Jewish hate crimes in New York City surged 8 percent in 2026, with 229 antisemitic incidents recorded through August, the New York Post reported. Overall hate crimes in the city rose more than 15 percent over the same period, 425 incidents through August 2026, compared to 367 during the same stretch in 2025.
Those numbers give Netanyahu's accusations a factual anchor that Mamdani will have difficulty dismissing as foreign political theater.
Mamdani did not stay quiet. In a statement after the speech, the mayor accused Netanyahu of lying and doubled down on his characterization of Israel's military operations in Gaza.
"As he has done time and again, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians."
Netanyahu had anticipated precisely that line of attack. He told the General Assembly that Mamdani "falsely, repeatedly accuse[s] Israel of genocide," and delivered a pointed rebuttal:
"Israel didn't commit genocide. Israel prevented genocide, and that's exactly what Mr. Mamdani's Hamas buddies would have done to us, had we not stopped them. They would have killed every last one of us."
He then addressed Mamdani's earlier effort to block his visit:
"Mr. Mamdani, you tried to stop me from coming here. You tried to silence me. Well, you can't silence me. You can't silence the truth."
The speech drew a sharp international reaction. Seventy-seven delegations walked out of the General Assembly hall during Netanyahu's address. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi condemned the speech on the social media platform X, calling it a vehicle to justify "war and aggression."
"The criminal Netanyahu came to the General Assembly to turn the podium of this international institution into a loudspeaker for justifying war and aggression; but the exit of 77 delegations from the hall spoke louder than any speech."
Gharibabadi added: "The world will not be fooled by narrative-building. History will judge the crimes, occupation, and aggression, not the publicity stunts in New York."
Netanyahu, for his part, seemed to relish the Iranian reaction. He devoted the final portion of his address to Tehran, declaring that "Israel has never been stronger" and that the Iranian regime's greatest fear is its own people. He then held up one of Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet devices, a tool that allows ordinary Iranians to bypass government censorship and access the open internet.
He asked the UN Secretary General to pass the device along to Iran's diplomatic delegation, adding with evident satisfaction:
"You can give it to the Iranian delegation. So when they inevitably defect, they too will be able to freely tell their story on social media."
Netanyahu predicted the Iranian regime's collapse is inevitable.
"Only a matter of time that, in Iran, something incredible will happen. The power of the people will overcome the people in power. This evil regime will fall and we will all celebrate that day."
Netanyahu closed with a direct appeal to Jewish communities around the world, framing the speech as a line drawn not just against Mamdani but against a broader climate of intimidation.
"The days when Jews were defenseless victims marched to the slaughter, those days are over."
And then:
"Today I have one message for Jews around the world: Raise your head high, be proud, be confident. Don't be intimidated. Stand up."
Netanyahu had previewed the confrontation on social media before traveling to New York, promising to "tell the truth" about Mamdani from the General Assembly podium. He delivered on that promise in detail, naming associates, citing reporting, and tying the mayor's rhetoric to rising hate-crime numbers in his own city.
Mamdani can call it a stunt. Seventy-seven delegations can walk out. But 229 antisemitic incidents in eight months is not a talking point, it is a record. And records, unlike speeches, do not leave the room.
As Fox News reported, Iran dismissed the entire address as theater. But when a head of state uses the world's most prominent stage to put an American mayor on trial by name, and the numbers from that mayor's own city back up the charge, dismissing it takes more than a tweet from Tehran.
Leaders who tolerate hostility toward their own residents eventually answer for it. Mamdani can respond to Netanyahu or ignore him, but he cannot make those 229 incidents disappear.
