Netanyahu tells Mamdani "shame on you" and vows UN speech reply

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded publicly to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani after the mayor repeated his characterisation of the Israeli leader as a war criminal and, in his words, an architect of genocide against the Palestinian people. Netanyahu's reply, reported by the Telegram channel Abu Ali Express, was brief: "Shame on you," he said, adding that he would come to the United Nations to tell the truth about the mayor.

Mamdani's remarks came in an interview with the American network CNN, according to Ynet, which reported that the mayor also defended his support for arresting Netanyahu with the argument that no one should be treated as being above the law. Ynet reported that Mamdani has nevertheless stepped back from an earlier pledge to enforce the international arrest warrant against the prime minister, and that Netanyahu's plane is due to land in New Jersey rather than at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Who Zohran Mamdani is

Mamdani is the mayor of New York City, the largest city in the United States and home to the world's biggest Jewish community outside Israel. The Jerusalem Post reported his call for Netanyahu's arrest ahead of the prime minister's visit to the city for the United Nations General Assembly, the annual gathering at UN headquarters in Manhattan at which heads of state and government deliver addresses from the same podium.

The mayor of New York has no authority over foreign policy or over the treatment of visiting heads of government, which is a federal matter in the United States, and the reports describe his position as a stated view rather than an executed policy. Ynet's account of him retreating from a promise to act on the warrant is the only detail in the material on that point.

The arrest warrant question

The material refers to an international arrest warrant against Netanyahu without setting out its origin, its scope or its legal status in the United States. Ynet described Mamdani as having promised at an earlier stage to enforce it and as having since moved away from that commitment. The Jerusalem Post, in a separate report, framed the mayor's call for Netanyahu's arrest in the context of the coming UN visit.

What Netanyahu said

Netanyahu's answer was addressed directly to Mamdani and tied to his scheduled speech. The Hebrew news channel News.co.il reported the prime minister as saying he intends to tell the truth about the mayor in his General Assembly address. The Jerusalem Post reported that Netanyahu criticised Mamdani over support for Hamas and threatened to expose what he called the truth ahead of the visit.

Israel Hayom's English edition reported that the prime minister's condemnation touched on Mamdani's public positions regarding Hamas and on recent protests, and that officials are preparing for the possibility of disruptions inside the assembly hall. Walkouts and interruptions during Israeli speeches at the General Assembly have been a recurring feature of the forum.

Why the language matters

The word genocide, applied to Israel's conduct of the war against Hamas, has become the central term of dispute between the Israeli government and its critics abroad. Israeli officials reject it categorically and treat its use by elected foreign officials as a line crossed. The reports here do not include any substantive Israeli rebuttal of the charge beyond Netanyahu's two-sentence reply, and they do not quote Mamdani at length beyond the phrases already cited.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports give the text of Netanyahu's planned remarks, or say what he intends to disclose about the mayor. They do not specify when or where the prime minister made his reply, nor whether it was delivered in writing, on video or in person. The arrest warrant is referred to but not described: its issuing authority, its charges and any legal consequence in the United States are absent from the material. The reports also do not say why the arrival airport is in New Jersey rather than New York, whether that reflects a security decision, a scheduling matter or something else, and no American official is quoted on the mayor's call for an arrest.