A video New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released late Tuesday night — in which the democratic socialist railed at length against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but confessed he couldn’t honor his campaign pledge to arrest him — triggered a wave of warnings from mainstream Jewish organizations that his singular focus on excoriating Israel from his official platforms places New Yorkers at risk.

The mayor’s video — which has received in the neighborhood of 150 million views across all his office’s social media channels, one of his most-viewed posts ever — ran with the tag “Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal” and denounced the Jewish state’s leader as “the architect of a horrific genocide.” Mamdani ultimately admitted in the video that his administration could not enforce an International Criminal Court warrant against Netanyahu should he attend the upcoming U.N. General Assembly. 

The social media clip, which accused Netanyahu and Israel of various war crimes including targeting women and newborn babies, provoked widespread outcry from Jewish groups. They noted Mamdani had omitted any reference to Hamas and the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that touched off the latest round of conflict, and asserted he had neglected his responsibility as a local official elected to represent all communities in the city.

“This isn’t just political theater. It’s a dangerous dereliction of duty,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on X, noting the spike in hate crimes targeting Jewish New Yorkers since Oct. 7. “He remains relentlessly obsessed with the world’s only Jewish state — even as Jewish New Yorkers face record levels of antisemitism and the city confronts urgent problems that demand his attention.”

Greenblatt further argued the video was the product of an “antisemitic worldview” and “the play-acting instincts of a perpetual student activist.” 

The UJA-Federation of New York said in a statement, “New Yorkers elected a mayor to lead this city — not to make Israel the centerpiece of your political grandstanding. At a time of rising antisemitism, repeatedly singling out and vilifying the world’s only Jewish state for perceived political benefit is repugnant, puts Jews at greater risk — and leaves many Jewish New Yorkers feeling targeted and unwelcome in the city we call home.”

“Shame on you,” the post concluded.

AIPAC said Mamdani’s video was “based on a modern blood libel and outrageous lies.”

Other groups including the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Orthodox Union and American Jewish Committee contrasted the mayor’s pledges early in his administration to represent New Yorkers of all faiths and nationalities with his use of official city platforms to exclusively pillory Israel — with the OU calling it a “betrayal of his oath of office and his own commitment to protect all New Yorkers” and the AJC demanding he “stop putting a target on the back of the Jewish community.”

“New Yorkers elected a mayor, not a prosecutor of foreign leaders,” SWC wrote in a statement, arguing he had taken the issue beyond criticism of any one foreign statesman. “Mayor Mamdani repeatedly singles out Israel while using the prestige of his office to legitimize rhetoric that further isolates the Jewish state and deepens division here at home.”

The SWC statement added: “He delivered a sweeping moral indictment of Israel while erasing the terrorist atrocities that ignited this war.” 

Pressed with these concerns after an unrelated event at City Hall on Wednesday, Mamdani said he would hypothetically have liked to see ICC warrants enforced against leaders of Hamas as well. Asked if he saw the Oct. 7 attacks, the deadliest wave of violence against Jews since the Holocaust, as genocidal, the mayor called them a “horrific war crime” and “something that should be deeply opposed with every single fiber of our being” — but declined to answer in the affirmative.

He maintained that criticizing Israel publicly was in keeping with his responsibilities to the city’s Palestinian American community, as well as a “universal politics.” He also reiterated that he would not “be welcoming” Netanyahu to the city, and suggested New Yorkers might greet his arrival with protests.

“This is a city where if anyone feels a level of frustration or opposition, protest is something that we will always respect,” he said. “I leave it to New Yorkers themselves to make that decision.”