Mamdani won’t join Netanyahu protests but defends right to demonstrate

NEW YORK (MNTV) — New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he will not take part in protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to the UN General Assembly, while defending New Yorkers’ right to demonstrate against Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

Netanyahu — who is the subject of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza — is expected to address the assembly on Sept. 24, a visit likely to draw large protests.

Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, said Wednesday he would not attend UN demonstrations and rejected suggestions he had urged New Yorkers to protest, saying his earlier comments merely affirmed the public’s right to do so. 

“If anyone feels a level of frustration or opposition, protest is something that we will always respect,” he had said in July, later clarifying that respecting the right was not the same as encouraging it.

Mamdani has been among Netanyahu’s most outspoken U.S. critics, calling him a “war criminal” and describing Israel’s campaign in Gaza — which South Africa is prosecuting as genocide at the International Court of Justice, and which a UN inquiry has reached the same conclusion about — as genocide, characterizations Israel rejects. 

During his campaign he pledged to enforce the ICC warrant if Netanyahu came to New York, before acknowledging a mayor lacks that authority and calling for federal action; the U.S., which does not recognize the ICC, has said Netanyahu will not be arrested. 

His stance has made him a target: Netanyahu’s Likud party recently placed him on a billboard alongside the leaders of Iran, Hezbollah, and Türkiye, and Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, accused him of fueling hostility. 

With large Jewish, Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian communities holding sharply different views, the visit is set to be a flashpoint over the war and the limits of protest.