Gov. Kathy Hochul said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu damaged his credibility when he accused New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani of sympathizing with Hamas terrorists.
In an interview with WNYC, Hochul disavowed the video Netanyahu released on Tuesday ahead of his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly in Manhattan. In the video, the prime minister falsely accused the mayor of supporting “the Hamas terrorist monsters who butchered our people” and inciting riots against Jewish New Yorkers.
The interview aired Thursday on “Who’s Running This Place?,” WNYC’s popup politics show.
“ I have enormous disagreements with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and this is added to the list,” Hochul said. “The mayor has never said he supports Hamas. He has called them a terrorist organization, exactly at odds with what Netanyahu just said. So he has hurt his own credibility.”
Hochul, a Democrat running for reelection this year, is an Israel supporter. The governor traveled to the country after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in a show of support.
Mamdani, meanwhile, has been a staunch critic of Netanyahu, accusing his government of carrying out a genocide on Palestinian people in Gaza. The mayor campaigned last year on a threat to arrest the prime minister for war crimes when he arrived in New York City. After taking office, he concluded he doesn’t have the legal authority to do so.
“We all know that what the prime minister has said in that video is not true,” Mamdani told reporters Tuesday. “What we do know to actually be the truth when it comes to the prime minister is that he is the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Netanyahu is scheduled to speak to the General Assembly later Thursday afternoon. In his video this week, the prime minister made clear he will single out Mamdani.
“ I'm going to tell the truth about our heroic soldiers, and I'm going to tell the truth about you,” he said, directly addressing Mamdani.
Hochul, a moderate who has been allied with the left-leaning Mamdani, said she understands the pain and atrocities Israel suffered in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. But she said Netanyahu deserves criticism for his comments about Mamdani.
“ I saw the devastation, the brutality and I understand the stress around this,” the governor told WNYC, noting her travel to the country. “I truly do. But for there to be an escalation when Netanyahu comes here, not telling the truth is … something that needs to be called out.”
