Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu strongly criticized New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday after the mayor said he could not support Israel because he believes the country gives preferential treatment to Jews over followers of other religions.

Appearing on CNN’s Inside Politics with Dana Bash, Netanyahu rejected Mamdani’s characterization of Israel and defended the country’s democratic system.

“He conveniently forgets that the only democracy in the Middle East is Israel. Twenty percent of our citizens are in fact Muslims. … but they sit on the Supreme Court. They’re in the Knesset, our parliament. They share every walk of life,” Netanyahu said.

The exchange follows remarks Mamdani made last month, when he said he supports Israel’s existence only if it guarantees equal rights to all citizens regardless of religion.

“I think any state that privileges one religion over the other is one that I can’t tell you I support, whether it be Israel or Saudi Arabia or anywhere else,” Mamdani, who is Muslim, said during an interview on ABC News’ This Week.

According to the Pew Research Center, Jews comprised approximately 77% of Israel’s population as of 2020, while Muslims accounted for 14.7% and Christians represented 1.9%.

Although Israeli law provides equal legal rights to all citizens, several international human rights organizations have argued that disparities continue to exist between Jewish and non-Jewish Israelis.

A 2025 report by Freedom House stated that, “long-term discrimination against Arab and other ethnic and religious minorities has resulted in systemic disparities in areas including criminal justice, local government budgets, education, and economic opportunity.”

The report also said, “Although the law protects the religious sites of non-Jewish groups, they face discrimination in the allocation of state resources as well as persistent cases of vandalism or harassment by Jewish extremists.”

Mamdani has repeatedly criticized Israel’s military operations in Judea and Samaria and Gaza. During last year’s mayoral campaign, he also said that if Netanyahu were to visit New York City, he would instruct the NYPD to arrest the Israeli prime minister under an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court alleging war crimes.

According to an October report by Brown University’s Cost of War project, more than 10% of Gaza’s population was either killed or seriously wounded during Israel’s military campaign against Hamas between October 7, 2023, and October 3, 2025.

Netanyahu dismissed Mamdani’s criticism, insisting that Israel remains the only nation in the Middle East that provides the equal rights the mayor claims to support.

“His supporters have supported Hamas, these people who murder people, who beheaded our men, who raped our women, and then murdered them, burned babies alive and so on,” Netanyahu said.

The prime minister also acknowledged that no democratic system is flawless but argued that Israel should not be singled out.

“This is not mere cynicism,” the prime minister later added. “I mean, it’s ridiculous. It’s absurd. There are always imperfect democracies. Israel is an imperfect democracy. The United States is an imperfect democracy.”

Earlier this year, Mamdani publicly condemned pro-Hamas demonstrators who gathered outside a synagogue in Queens, New York.

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{Matzav.com}