During a mayoral debate in New York, Zohran Mamdani pledged to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits the city, citing international law and comparing his stance to past defiance of US policy.
New York City mayoral candidates Brad Lander, Scott Stringer, Zohran Mamdani, Adrienne Adams, Zellnor Myrie, Whitney Tilson, and Jim Walden attended a forum on Sunday at the B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue in the city. During the event, which was co-hosted by the New York Jewish Agenda, the candidates were asked a plethora of questions on Jewish issues.
During the debate, Whitney Tilson criticized his fellow candidate Zohran Mamdani, who is unabashedly anti-Israel, and accused him of being a “primary inciter” of violent antisemitic and anti-Israel mobs in the city. Do this Mamdani replied by citing far-left Israeli activist Noy Katsman, whose brother was murdered on October 7th, saying: “We must never give up on the conviction that all life, Israeli and Palestinian, Jewish and Arab, is equally precious. We must never lose hope of a brighter, peaceful future.”
The candidate went on to back up his anti-Israel rhetoric by citing Israeli historians Amos Goldberg and Daniel Blatman, as well as former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who recently claimed that what the IDF was doing in Gaza is “a war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians.”
Later, Mamdani pledged that if elected, he would ensure that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be arrested if he were to visit the city. “Wherever (Mayor) Eric Adams’s administration or another administration has taken us out of compliance with international law, I would bring New York City back into that compliance. I think ultimately the focus of our mayor should be on the issues of NYC at hand. My answer is the same whether we’re speaking about Vladimir Putin or Netanyahu. I think this should be a city in compliance with international law, and we have seen other countries across the world who are signatories to the ICC stating that they would honor that request.”
Challenged with the fact that the US is not a member of the International Criminal Court, he said that doing so would be “courageous.” He went on to compare his non-compliance with US law to arrest Netanyahu, to that of then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to recognize same-sex marriage.
When asked if he would continue supporting the boycott of Israel after being elected, Mamdani did not directly answer, but reiterated: “I would ensure that any of my actions moving forward as the Mayor of NYC would not be in violation of any international laws.”
During the debate, Jewish candidate Brad Lander described his approach to Israel, recounting how he joined a group called “Israelis for peace,” which, since the beginning of the war, has been calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. He noted how he and the group hold up pictures of both the hostages, as well as Gazan Arabs, while “trying to remember that they were all created in the image of G-d.”
He went on to claim that he is “deeply inspired by and believes in the vision of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state as envisioned in the declaration of independence, open to the ingathering of exiles, but also, with full social and political rights for all of it’s inhabitants regardless of religion.”
Lander then insisted: “The occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has to end so Israel could be a Jewish and democratic state.”
Scott Stringer, another Jewish candidate, declared during the debate: “I am, in my heart, a Zionist. I believe that Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state. I do believe that BDS is not just anti-Israel but antisemitic.”
