Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in remarks to Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures this weekend that he is planning to visit New York City in September to attend the United Nations General Assembly, as he has traditionally done, despite Mayor Zohran Mamdani claiming the leader is “not welcome” in the city.
Mamdani published a video on social media last week in which he announced he would be breaking a promise he made during the mayoral campaign that he would attempt to arrest Netanyahu for alleged “war crimes,” citing a total lack of legal authority to arrest a presiding head of a foreign government in response to a “warrant” by an institution, the International Criminal Court (ICC), that the United States does not belong to. Mamdani framed the concession that he could not take action to arrest Netanyahu as a defiant declaration that the Israeli leader was “not welcome” in New York for reasons that he did not elaborate.
Netanyahu is currently in the United States for a brief visit to Washington, DC, that will include a White House meeting with President Donald Trump and attendance at the funeral of late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). He is expected to return to Israel on Wednesday. Speaking to Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, Netanyahu stated that he was “not concerned” about Mamdani’s statements and expected to return to New York in September for the General Assembly’s general debate, an annual event in which the heads of state of every member country, or chosen representatives, are invited to address the forum on any topic of their choice.
“I’ve appeared just about every year… in my prime ministership, unless there are security conditions, but barring that — and I don’t expect that to be the case this time — yes, I do intend to come to New York,” he confirmed.
“I intend to come and speak the truth, speak for Israel and for the Israeli-American alliance from the podium of the United Nations,” Netanyahu added.
Mamdani, who became mayor of New York in January, had promised last year that, if elected, he would move to arrest Netanyahu in response to Israel’s military operations against jihadist terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, genocidal attacks on the Israeli homeland. Islamists and radical leftists around the world have for years condemned Netanyahu for approving a military incursion into Hamas-controlled Gaza after October 7, claiming that the targeting of Hamas terrorist infrastructure was actually an attempt to erase Hamas’s victims in the territory.
The ICC, to which neither the United States nor Israel belong, issued warrants for Netanyahu, then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and several senior Hamas terrorists simultaneously in November 2024, after prosecutor Karim Khan requested them in response to alleged war crimes in Gaza. The Hamas terrorists cited by the warrants, most prominently “political” leader Ismail Haniyeh and Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, have since been eliminated in the ensuing war. According to the ICC, Netanyahu is wanted on charges of “starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”
Khan, the prosecutor who began the process against Netanyahu, was removed from his position last week for “serious misconduct and serious breach of duty” after being accused of sexual harassment and non-consensual sexual behavior against a female ICC aide.
Mamdani addressed Netanyahu’s ICC status as the process against Khan culminated last week. The mayor published a video on July 21 titled, “Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal” in which he conceded that he could not arrest Netanyahu legally.
“My administration has reviewed every avenue available under applicable law to determine whether New York City could execute the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant if Benjamin Netanyahu came here,” he stated. “It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant.”
“There is a reason the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest,” the mayor continued. “As human beings, we have spent generations building a shared understanding that there are crimes so grave they offend all of humanity. Anyone with their eyes, their heart, with their conscience should recognize the devastation he has wrought, and understand that he belongs before a court of law.”
Mamdani concluded that Netanyahu was, despite the lack of legal authority, “not welcome in New York City,” without elaborating what enforcement method exists to ensure Netanyahu would be unwelcome if he visited.
Netanyahu has been a regular at the General Assembly for years without causing any major incidents. During his last address to the Assembly in September 2025, Neyantahu issued an assertive defense of his country’s military activities against jihadist terrorist organizations which multiple representatives of Islamic nations walked out on before it began.
“Israel will not allow you to shove a terror state down our throats… because you don’t have the guts to face down a hostile media and antisemitic mobs demanding Israel’s blood,” Netanyahu told the forum at the time, thanking President Trump for defending Israel’s right to self-defense but condemning the United Nations generally for failing to support Israel in its fight against antisemitic terrorism.
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