Mayor Zohran Mamdani has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal, said he would order Netanyahu's arrest if he set foot in New York City, and refused to march in the Israel Day Parade. Yet the New York Police Department he oversees still maintains a liaison officer stationed in Israel, still trains alongside Israeli law enforcement and the Israel Defense Forces, and still contracts with an Israeli intelligence firm founded by former IDF officers. Mamdani has never directed the NYPD to stop any of it.
That gap between the mayor's public foreign policy positions and his department's institutional ties to Israel is the subject of new reporting from City & State New York, which found that Mamdani has never directed the NYPD to stop cooperating with Israeli National Police, nor to stop attending conferences or trainings in Israel. The outlet reported that NYPD officials took official trips to Israel in September 2025 for counterterrorism and antisemitism training, and that the department's liaison officer in Israel returned to the post after reportedly leaving the job a week before Mamdani's election, according to an NYPD spokesperson cited in the report.
A Liaison Post Dating Back Decades
The NYPD's presence in Israel is not new. The department sent officers to a law enforcement exchange program in Israel as early as 2002, and began formally stationing an officer there through its international and domestic liaison program in 2007, per City & State's reporting. That liaison, Charlie Benaim, a former IDF officer, has been based at Israel National Police's Sharon District headquarters in Kfar Saba since 2012. The NYPD has also continued to observe Israeli police and border guard methods in the West Bank, the outlet reported.
The liaison program itself is partially funded by the New York City Police Foundation, a private non-profit, which insulates the arrangement from direct City Council budget votes. The NYPD also contracts with Terrogence Global, an Israeli intelligence firm founded by former soldiers from the IDF intelligence corps, according to City & State. An NYPD spokesperson told the outlet the department has no trips planned to Israel for 2026.
Mamdani's Rhetoric Versus His Record
Mamdani's public statements on Israel have grown sharper since taking office. He has accused Netanyahu of genocide, released a video commemorating Nakba Day, and said in a video that the ICC-wanted Netanyahu is a war criminal. Describing the NYPD's ties to Israeli law enforcement, Mamdani has said the relationship involved joint training, and in a widely noted remark reported by City & State, he said: “When the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it's been laced by the IDF.”
But Mamdani has also acknowledged the limits of his own authority. He said he did not have authority to arrest Netanyahu outright, even as he said he would instruct the NYPD to arrest Netanyahu should the Israeli leader enter New York City. Netanyahu, for his part, insisted he would attend the U.N. General Assembly regardless of Mamdani's claim that he was not welcome in the city. Law enforcement sources described Mamdani's encouragement of protests during Netanyahu's U.N. visit as reckless and unfair to NYPD officers, according to the New York Post.
Retaining Tisch, a Self-Described Zionist
Perhaps the clearest sign of the administration's cautious approach is Mamdani's decision to retain Jessica Tisch as NYPD commissioner. Tisch describes herself as a proud Zionist, and Mamdani has defended her performance in the role, saying, “I would not have someone serving our city if I was not confident in what they were doing.” The pro-Palestinian group Pal-Awda has demanded Mamdani fire Tisch and released a list of demands for the mayor, a demand he has not acted on.
Mamdani has not tried to implement BDS policies since becoming mayor, despite supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel as a public stance. As an Assembly member, he called for a boycott of Cornell Tech — a partnership between Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology — but he has since said he would not support such a boycott, according to a statement cited by City & State.
Legislative Legacy Versus Executive Restraint
Mamdani's most concrete anti-settlement action remains legislative rather than executive. As an Assembly member, he sponsored the Not on Our Dime Act, which aims to prevent New York-registered charities from funding activity connected to illegal Israeli settlements. In January, as mayor, he revoked Eric Adams' anti-BDS executive order, one of his first acts in office. But that revocation undid a restriction on city agencies rather than creating any new mandate to sever NYPD ties with Israel.
City Hall has no travel edict prohibiting travel to any country, including Israel, and the New York City Council has no planned events in Israel at this point, though Council Member Julie Menin said she planned to lead a mission to Israel during her tenure. Sam Raskin said no City Hall officials had traveled to Israel for official business under the Mamdani administration. Separately, Mamdani acknowledged there had been a miscommunication about a security escort for Rama Duwaji's planned trip to Lebanon and Syria, after the NYPD denied its detail would escort her — a detail Hoodline previously reported raised its own cost questions.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu's own campaign has cast Mamdani as a top political foe, featuring him prominently in campaign ads, a dynamic Hoodline covered when a poster placed the mayor beside Iran's Ayatollah. The contrast underscores the story's core tension: a mayor who has become an international lightning rod for his Israel rhetoric while the police department beneath him keeps its decades-old institutional ties to Israeli security services fully intact.
