“Like (International Criminal Court, ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan, Mamdani appears to want to distract attention from his mischief by attacking the leader of the Jewish state, the only democracy in the Middle East,” Mr. Netanyahu’s office added. Mr. Khan was suspended in early June due to allegations of sexual assault against a member of his team.
In an interview published on Saturday by the New York TimesMr. Mamdani estimated that “Prime Minister Netanyahu has his place in The Hague. He is a war criminal targeted by an arrest warrant” from the ICC. Mamdani had indicated that he did not know whether he had the power to question a foreign leader, specifying that he was engaged in “active discussions” with the New York authorities on this subject. “Whatever the law authorizes me to do in New York, that’s what we will do,” he added, while the United Nations General Assembly, a major annual meeting of leaders from around the world, is being held in September at UN headquarters in New York.
Several arrest warrants issued against Netanyahuu
The ICC, based in The Hague, issued arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and against humanity in the Gaza Strip as part of the Israeli offensive carried out in retaliation for the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023. For Mr. Netanyahu’s office, the ICC is “an operetta court that has no jurisdiction over Americans or Israelis.”
Mamdani, from the left wing of the Democratic Party, had already promised to send municipal police to execute arrest warrants against leaders wanted by the ICC, including Mr. Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin. As early as Saturday, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon accused Mr. Mamdani of “stirring up hostility and making headlines by attacking the State of Israel.”
“It won’t change anything. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit New York, speak with pride before the United Nations General Assembly and affirm before the whole world the truth of Israel as well as its unwavering right to defend its citizens,” he added on X.
