New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s social media statement on Tuesday, in which he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal,” has grabbed major public attention, going viral across multiple social media platforms.
Mamdani, in his two-minute-30-second video statement, acknowledged the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant against Netanyahu for Gaza war crimes, including the killing of over 73,000 Palestinians.
"Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people. 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 anesthesia ... There is a reason the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest,” Mamdani said.
The New York mayor also backed the ICC decision, saying: “As I've said, I agree with the ICC that Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested and tried for his crimes, as I do for anyone else charged by the ICC.”
However, he admitted that the city did not have the legal authority to arrest Netanyahu and called on the federal government to do so.
“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,” Mamdani said.
He added that Netanyahu was not welcome in New York City.
The video, released late Tuesday, has racked up over 84.5 million views and 1.3 million likes on X as of Thursday evening. On Instagram, the stats were even more impressive with 103 million views and 8.8 million likes.
On YouTube, the video released on the official NYC Mayor’s Office channel had 2.48 million views and 381,000 likes. On Facebook, in comparison, the video on the official NYC Mayor’s Office channel was viewed over 11 million times at the time of writing.
“While we cannot end the genocide on our own, we can decide whether our silence will become another weapon. And we can examine every tool we have to defend the humanity and dignity of all people,” said Mamdani.
