According to accounts from multiple city officials and political insiders, Mamdani made personal calls to city council members criticizing the leaders for linking his "war criminal" comments about Netanyahu to a climate encouraging antisemitism in the city. Mamdani had released a video days before the stabbing in which he called Netanyahu a "war criminal" and declared that the Israeli prime minister would not be welcome in New York City. In the statement, Mamdani said he believed NYC should honor an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Netanyahu. In his response to the community leaders, Mamdani said his criticisms were directed at Netanyahu personally and not at Israel or Jewish New Yorkers. "I want to make very clear that my criticisms of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are of specifically Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu," he said in a statement.