Mamdani praised for ‘moral clarity’ as he condemns ‘war criminal’ Netanyahu

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani is being commended online, over his latest remarks about Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu being subject to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes in Palestine.

In a video released on Tuesday, Mamdani branded the Israeli prime minister a “war criminal” and “the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people”.

He continued: “He is responsible for the killing of more than 73,000 people, for the maiming of tens of thousands of children, as those who survive undergo amputation without anaesthesia.

“For the targeting of neonatal hospitals and maternity care centres … for the countless people he starved as he blocked food and humanitarian aid from reaching them … for the gunning down of hundreds of aid workers and journalists.

“And just last month, the UN confirmed that Palestinian children continue to be targeted and killed by Israeli armed forces, more than eight months after the so-called ceasefire. The list goes on and on.

“All as we, as Americans, pay for the bombs that do the killing.”

Mamdani went on to state he agrees with the ICC that Netanyahu “should be arrested and tried for his crimes”, and that his administration has “reviewed every avenue available, under applicable law” to see if it could execute the ICC’s arrest warrant if the Israeli prime minister set foot in New York City.

“It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant. The federal government, however, does, and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant,” he said.

It comes just days after Mamdani was asked by The New York Times what would happen if Netanyahu arrives in New York in September for the United Nations General Assembly, and he said there was an “active conversation” with the administration’s legal department to see “what the prospects are that we have here in our municipality”.

“What we’ve seen at the national level is a desire sometimes to write your own laws, to go outside of the bounds of legality – that’s not something we have an interest in,” he said.

Mamdani has since been praised for his remarks, with one X/Twitter user writing: “I love when leftist politicians don’t mince words”:

YouTuber Mightykeef said: “The Mayor of New York just did something none of the presidents of the United States would ever do”:

Author Assal Rad said: “This is what real leadership with moral clarity looks like”:

“This is the kind of moral clarity we need from every elected Democrat,” commented YouTuber Adam Mockler:

And technology journalist Taylor Lorenz tweeted that Mamdani had “more moral clarity than every single member of congress”:

The ICC issued its arrest warrant in November 2024, at which point Israel said that it “categorically rejects the absurd and false lies” levelled against it and that Netanyahu will “not yield to pressure, will not be deterred and will not retreat until all of Israel’s war objectives are achieved”.

On Sunday, Netanyahu’s office tweeted that the ICC was a “kangaroo court” which “has no jurisdiction over Americans or Israelis” and described the arrest warrant as “bogus”.

Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post a day later that Netanyahu “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America”.

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