NYC mayor says PM spread ‘baseless lies’ after he accused Mamdani of being friendly with Hamas; address also angers Qatar, prompting it to defend record as Israel-Hamas mediator
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani hit back at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday after the Israeli leader claimed that Jews haven’t felt safe in New York since he was elected, and accused him of being friendly with Hamas.
Mamdani, a staunch opponent of Israel who has been in office since January 2026, responded to Netanyahu’s speech by accusing the Israeli premier of leading a genocide against the Palestinian people, a charge that he has made previously and that Israel rejects.
“As he has done time and again, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians,” Mamdani said in his statement, according to local media reports. “Yet no lie can change the fact that he remains the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Mamdani’s statement was issued in response to Netanyahu’s address at the UN General Assembly, a portion of which was dedicated to the New York City mayor.
Netanyahu, in his speech, accused Mamdani of antisemitism and said that Jews “no longer feel safe in New York” thanks to him.
“You falsely and repeatedly accuse Israel of genocide. Mr. Madani, you tried to stop me from coming here; you tried to silence me. You can’t silence me. You can’t silence the truth,” Netanyahu had continued.
“Israel didn’t commit genocide. Israel prevented genocide. And that’s exactly what Mr. Mamdani’s Hamas buddies would have done to us had we not stopped them. They would have killed every last one of us,” Netanyahu asserted.
Mamdani did not publish his response to Netanyahu on social media, instead sharing a video of an olive tree planting ceremony held at his mayoral residence on Wednesday night with Palestinian families from Gaza.
“Last night I planted an olive tree at Gracie Mansion with Palestinian families from Gaza. May peace be in our future,” the caption accompanying the video read.
Last night I planted an olive tree at Gracie Mansion with Palestinian families from Gaza. May peace be our future. https://t.co/3snGtcAA0J— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) September 24, 2026
Netanyahu’s speech also angered Qatar, after he dedicated a portion of it to the Gulf nation — which he said was part of an “eighth front” in Israel’s war, the war for truth — accusing it of spreading lies about Israel and funding US universities in order to “brainwash young minds to hate Israel, hate America, and hate the West.”
“This is the same Qatar that hosts the Hamas butchers of October 7,” Netanyahu said, referring to the terror group’s political leadership, most of whom are based out of Doha.
Doha was a key mediator in hostage talks with Hamas, and top Netanyahu aides are under investigation in the so-called Qatargate scandal for allegedly taking money from Qatar to spread sympathetic messages in Israeli media
A senior Qatari diplomat retaliated after Netanyahu’s speech that “speaking to a half-empty room during his UN remarks says plenty about the support for this message.”
Dozens of envoys from across the world walked out, some jeering and booing, as Netanyahu delivered his speech.
“Blaming Qatar for political failures [sic] does not change the facts,” the Qatari deputy ambassador to the US, Hamas al-Muftah, wrote on X.
“Qatar’s reported funding of American universities has overwhelmingly supported the operation of US university campuses in Education City (in Doha), bringing American higher education to the Middle East. Those universities maintain academic responsibility for their programs; Qatar does not dictate what happens on their US campuses,” he said.
Addressing Hamas’s presence in Qatar, the diplomat said Netanyahu knows “exactly why Hamas representatives have been based in Doha.”
“Qatar has served as a communications channel and mediator in negotiations involving Israel, Hamas, the United States and Egypt. US officials have repeatedly described Qatar’s mediation role as critical or indispensable.”
“At a moment of profound regional and domestic political turmoil, attacking one of the countries doing the difficult work of mediation does nothing to solve the problem,” al-Muftah added.
The Qatari deputy envoy attached to his tweet a photo of Netanyahu sitting in the Oval Office alongside US President Donald Trump, reading out an apology written for him to the prime minister of Qatar over a failed Israeli strike last year targeting Hamas’s leaders in Doha.
@IsraeliPM speaking to half-empty room during his UN remarks says plenty about the support for this message. Blaming Qatar for a political failures does not change the facts. Qatar’s reported funding of American universities has overwhelmingly supported the operation of U.S. university campuses in Education City, bringing American higher education to the Middle East. Those universities maintain academic responsibility for their programs; Qatar does not dictate what happens on their U.S. campuses. You also know exactly why Hamas representatives have been based in Doha: Qatar has served as a communications channel and mediator in negotiations involving Israel, Hamas, the United States and Egypt. U.S. officials have repeatedly described Qatar’s mediation role as critical or indispensable. At a moment of profound regional and domestic political turmoil, attacking one of the countries doing the difficult work of mediation does nothing to solve the problem.— Hamad AlMuftah (@hmmm1983) September 24, 2026
Turkey likewise rejected Netanyahu’s “baseless accusations” after he called the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “tyrant,” and accused Ankara of harboring Hamas terror leaders.
“The latest country to become a super spreader of antisemitic lies (is Turkey),” he said.
“Erdogan is a tyrant. He also hosts the Hamas terror chiefs.”
The state-run Anadolu quoted the Turkish presidency’s communications director Burhanettin Duran, as slamming Netanyahu’s allegation as “incompatible” with UN values.
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s use of the UN General Assembly podium to level ‘baseless accusations’ against Turkiye and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was incompatible with the ‘ideals of peace, law and dialogue’ represented by the UN,” Duran said.
Netanyahu’s words cannot “make his massacres, the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the proceedings before international law invisible,” he added.
Speech met with mixed response back home
Netanyahu’s remarks also prompted responses from closer to home, as Israeli politicians reacted, some in anger and some in support, to the premier’s address on the world stage.
Former prime minister and chair of B’Yachad Naftali Bennett lamented in a post on X that Netanyahu failed to formally declare Qatar an enemy of the state in his speech, and doubled down on his pledge to do it himself if he wins the October 27 election.
“Netanyahu missed that opportunity, and in doing so, he whitewashed and legitimized Qatar,” Bennett fumed. “Every moment that Netanyahu refuses to call the Qatari enemy by its name harms our national security, damages Israel’s standing in the world, and dishonors the memory of those murdered in the [October 7] massacre.”
Meanwhile, the chair of the left-wing Democrats Party, Yair Golan, quipped that Netanyahu had failed to get his remarks on Qatar “cleared with Jonatan Urich,” a key suspect in the Qatargate affair.
Members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition applauded his address, however, with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar congratulating him for “a brilliant speech” which “presented our truth — Israel’s truth — in the UN house of lies.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir echoed his sentiments, declaring that “the entire State of Israel stands with you in the face of the world’s lies.”
As reported by The Times of Israel