Israel’s former deputy foreign minister is calling for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to be declared a persona non grata and permanently barred from entering the State of Israel.
Sharren Haskel, who stepped down from her position last week, made the comments after the New York City mayor said he would look into arresting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the latter’s planned September visit for the U.N. General Assembly.
The Israeli lawmaker said that Mamdani’s actions go far beyond legitimate political criticism, undermine Israel’s security, harm Jewish communities around the world, embolden antisemitism and seek to delegitimize the State of Israel on the international stage.
“An individual who uses international platforms to call for the arrest of Israel’s elected leaders and actively campaigns to delegitimize the Jewish state should not enjoy the privilege of entering Israel,” Haskel wrote in a July 20 letter to the premier and Israel’s foreign minister. “We must adopt a policy of zero tolerance toward those who systematically work against the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”
