Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday accused New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani of “fomenting hate” and said he intends to address the United Nations General Assembly in September, regardless of the mayor’s demand that he be arrested under an International Criminal Court warrant. In an interview with Fox News, Netanyahu asserted that Mamdani is “trying to turn one group against the other” and that Jewish Americans in New York have told him they are “afraid right now.” The prime minister’s remarks followed assurances from U.S. President Donald Trump, who posted on social media that Netanyahu “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America.”

Mayor Mamdani last week acknowledged that New York City lacked the legal authority to execute the ICC’s arrest warrant, which was issued in 2024 against Netanyahu and his former defence minister over alleged war crimes in Gaza. In a video statement, Mamdani called the Israeli leader a “war criminal” and “the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people,” adding that he was not welcome in the city. He urged the federal government to act on the ICC warrant. The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Netanyahu’s latest criticism.

Netanyahu, who has dismissed the ICC charges as “bogus,” pointed to the dismissal on Friday of ICC prosecutor Karim Khan over allegations of misconduct. “He lost his job because he was removed by a vast majority of nations who knew that he was a con job,” the prime minister said. He also linked what he described as Mamdani’s “hate speech” to a stabbing last week in Manhattan, where a Jewish man was injured with a screwdriver after leaving a synagogue; the suspect allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar.” Netanyahu claimed the attack was not coincidental, telling Fox News: “After he made this hate speech against Israel and against me, the next day a Jew is stabbed coming out of a synagogue.”

The diplomatic spat underlines growing political divisions in the United States over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Netanyahu is expected to visit Washington this week to meet Trump and attend a memorial service for the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch ally of Israel. He then plans to return to New York in September for the UN General Assembly, where he says he will “speak the truth, speak for Israel and for the Israeli-American alliance from the podium of the United Nations.” For now, the legal and political standoff over his potential arrest remains unresolved.