NEW YORK — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu castigated Mayor Zohran Mamdani in his remarks at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, calling the mayor an antisemite and accusing him of “spreading lies” about Jews that have contributed to violence against them.

“Shame on you for distorting the facts,” Netanyahu said. “Shame on you for inverting victim and aggressor. Shame on you for spitting in the face of truth, Mr. Mamdani.

“Since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York,” the PM said. “They talk to me, they tell me ‘this isn’t the city we remember, it changed so quickly.” Hate crimes against Jewish New Yorkers have been on the rise, according to NYPD stats.

Mamdani is an outspoken supporter of Palestinian rights. He has called on the federal government to arrest Netanyahu, whom he’s called a “war criminal” on a warrant from the International Criminal Court, which the United States does not formally recognize, for Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“Mr. Mamdani, you try to stop me from coming here. You try to silence me. Well, you can’t silence me. You can’t silence the truth,” Netanyahu said.

He said accusations from Mamdani and others that Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza are “the greatest lie of the century” and that Israel has instead carried out “the opposite of genocide,” pointing to efforts the Israeli military has made to reduce civilian casualties and to Hamas’ use of civilian facilities as military bases. A U.N. commission, as well as international human rights groups, have declared Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza.

Before taking office, the mayor had pledged to have the NYPD arrest Netanyahu if he came to New York. But this summer he backed away from that, saying that the NYPD does not have the jurisdiction to do so. In a statement after the speech, Mamdani once again pointed out the warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest.

“As he has done time and again, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians,” the mayor said.

Netanyahu listed Mamdani’s rapport with streamer Hasan Piker, his hosting of a Palestinian journalist at Gracie Mansion and posts the mayor’s wife liked on social media as proof the mayor is antisemitic. He also attacked Mamdani’s labeling of Israel’s actions as a genocide, saying that, actually, “Mr. Mamdani’s Hamas buddies” wanted to carry out one against Jews.

During the roughly 40-minute speech, Netanyahu took a forceful tone, calling the Israel Defense Forces “the most moral army in the world” and saying the state “rose and fought like lions” after the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks in which Hamas killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took hundreds more hostage.

Netanyahu’s speech sparked a protest outside the U.N. that led to more than 100 arrests. Among those taken into custody were a number of left-wing politicians and a number of Hollywood celebrities.

Mamdani had previously said he would not join Thursday’s protests. Minutes before the address was slated to begin, the mayor posted a video showing him planting an olive tree at Grace Mansion and eating dinner with Palestinian families from Gaza.

“May peace be our future,” he said in the caption.

Netanyahu landed at Stewart International Airport on Thursday ahead of his speech. He’s expected to spend less than a day in the U.S., and he is not scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump or other U.S. officials.

The prime minister had previously promised to berate Mamdani, posting a video earlier this week in which he falsely claimed that Mamdani had incited “riots” against Jews in New York and that he is a supporter of Hamas. Mamdani has repeatedly said Hamas is a terrorist organization and called the Oct. 7 attacks a “horrific war crime.”

“We all know that what the prime minister has said in that video is not true,” Mamdani said earlier this week

“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 as the prime minister is the architect of a horrific genocide against Palestinians, and that just a few days ago, his military killed an 11-year-old boy in what is deemed to be a safe zone in Gaza.

_____

©2026 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.