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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday (local time) sharply criticised New York City's mayor, Zohran Mamdani, accusing him of promoting hatred against Jewish residents and dismissing suggestions that he could face arrest during a planned visit to the United Nations in September.
Speaking to Fox News host Sean Hannity, Netanyahu confirmed that he intends to travel to New York for the annual UN General Assembly despite remarks made by the city's mayor Mamdani. When Hannity said, "You've got this, this lunatic mayor in New York thinking you may get arrested if you go to New York, which will never happen," Netanyahu responded, "First of all, I'm going to New York. I'd love to see you there when I go to the UN in September." Netanyahu then launched into a broader criticism of the New York mayor. "But I'm definitely going there. I'm going to speak the truth in front of this, you know, this hate-spewing elected official who's pitting one group of New Yorkers against the others, he's turning them against New York Jews. I mean what are we in the 1930s? What is this, you know, so much hate, so many lies," Netanyahu said. His remarks come as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday (local time) said that he was "not interested in getting into a back-and-forth" with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after being asked about the Israeli leader's criticism of his past calls regarding the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to Fox News. Speaking during an unrelated press conference in Brooklyn, Mamdani was asked to respond to Netanyahu's comments on Fox News (on Sunday), in which the Israeli prime minister reportedly accused him of "fomenting hate" in the context of an Upper West Side attack being investigated as a suspected hate crime. "I'm not interested in getting into a back-and-forth with Prime Minister Netanyahu," Mamdani said. "What I will say is that here in New York City, one of my top priorities is keeping Jewish New Yorkers safe, keeping every single New Yorker safe. And we know that while Jewish New Yorkers comprise a minority of all New Yorkers, they comprise a majority of the victims of all hate crimes, and it is unacceptable," he added. According to Fox News, Mamdani was also pressed on whether he had discussed his previous calls for the city to accept the jurisdiction of the ICC and arrest Netanyahu if he visited New York during conversations with US President Donald Trump. "I've made my thoughts clear. I'll keep the conversation between the President and myself between him and myself," Mamdani responded. The reference case was related to a man identified as Raul Morales, 51, who was charged with two counts of attempted murder in the second degree as a hate crime after two men were stabbed Thursday afternoon in broad daylight on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Prosecutors alleged in court that Morales first approached a 57-year-old Asian man from behind and shouted "Allahu Akbar" before plunging a knife into his back, without provocation. Four blocks from this attack, Morales stabbed a Jewish man wearing a kippah who had just left the synagogue in the chest with a screwdriver, prosecutors alleged, according to CNN. (ANI)
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