OPINION:
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently declared that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “not welcome” in New York, and he urged the federal government to execute the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against the prime minster.
This was after he acknowledged that the city lacks the legal authority to arrest an Israeli head of state.
Whether one agrees with Mr. Netanyahu or not, leaders should recognize that rhetoric has consequences.
New York is experiencing unprecedented levels of antisemitism. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the state had 1,160 antisemitic incidents in 2025, including a record number of physical assaults. Most recently, a Jewish man was stabbed outside a synagogue during the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av.
Hatred rarely begins with violence. It begins with language that isolates, stigmatizes and dehumanizes.
I write not as an American politician, but as an Emirati Muslim whose country has learned painful lessons about the dangers of extremism. The United Arab Emirates has made religious tolerance a national priority because we understand what happens when hatred is allowed to spread.
Following the murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, our authorities acted swiftly to arrest those responsible and reaffirm that antisemitism has no place in our society. Long before that tragedy, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan repeatedly stressed that combating antisemitism is a shared international responsibility.
Our country’s experience after Sept. 11, 2001, also shaped our thinking. Sheikh Zayed believed terrorists had hijacked Islam and insisted the UAE stand with the United States against those who distorted our faith for violent ends.
Silence was never an option when extremists claimed to speak in our name.
That same principle applies to antisemitism today. People are free to criticize Israel or any other government, but political disagreement must never become an excuse to marginalize the Jewish people or deny them the right to define their own identity.
History teaches that societies are judged by how they protect vulnerable minorities when emotions run highest. If a Muslim-majority nation like the UAE can insist that antisemitism has no place within its borders, America can do the same.
Leadership is measured not by symbolic political gestures, but by the courage to stop hatred before it becomes violence.
MOZAH ALKINDI
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
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