A New York City councilwoman has extended an offer to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the Big Apple in January on the day Zohran Mamdani is to be sworn in after the left-wing mayor-elect’s campaign threat to arrest the Israeli leader.

“Despite the vile rhetoric of unshamed Marxist radicals like Mayor-elect Mamdani, your visit would serve as a powerful reminder that this city stands with Israel, the Jewish people, and with the principles that unite our two great nations,” Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, who represents the 48th district in Brooklyn, wrote.

She also noted that New York City is home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel.

Vernikov added in her X post, which contained a screenshot of the letter she sent to Netanyahu: “One of
@ZohranKMamdani’s campaign promises was to arrest @netanyahu, the duly elected Prime Minister of
@Israel, upon his arrival in NYC. On January 1, Mamdani will take office. And also on January 1st, I look forward to welcoming Bibi to New York City. NY will always stand with Israel, and no radical marxists with a title can change that.”

After Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral election—making him the city’s first Muslim and first South Asian mayor-elect—Republican leaders in Washington, D.C., signaled plans to try to block him from taking office.

President Donald Trump has accused the 34-year-old Ugandan-born politician of being a communist, after previously warning that he would withhold federal funding from New York City if Mamdani won.

Mamdani secured his win last week with a decisive margin, defeating former Governor Andrew Cuomo by nearly 10 percentage points, though Mamdani barely won a majority of votes overall.

But some Republican lawmakers have vowed to block him from taking office. Some Republican lawmakers have demanded investigations into Mamdani’s naturalisation process, calling for him to be stripped of his US citizenship and deported. They have accused him of involvement in communist and “terrorist” activities and figures linked to terrorism.

“If Mamdani lied on his naturalisation documents, he doesn’t get to be a citizen, and he certainly doesn’t get to run for mayor of New York City. A great American city is on the precipice of being run by a communist who has publicly embraced a terroristic ideology,” Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) said in an October 29 news release, after asking US Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the mayor-elect, the Economic Times reported.

“The American naturalization system REQUIRES any alignments with communism or terrorist activities to be disclosed. I’m doubtful he disclosed them. If the information is confirmed, put him on the first flight back to Uganda,” Ogles added.

Meanwhile, a campaign finance watchdog has filed two criminal referrals against Mamdani, accusing the leftist socialist of taking illicit donations from overseas contributors.

The Coolidge Reagan Foundation sent the recommendations to the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office last week. They say that Mamdani may have broken the Federal Election Campaign Act and the New York Election Code.

The recommendations were made after the New York Post reported earlier this month that Mamdani’s campaign got about $13,000 in donations from at least 170 people who live outside the US, including one from his mother-in-law in Dubai.

“These are not isolated incidents or clerical errors,” Dan Backer, a national campaign finance expert and president of the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, said in a statement.

“This was a sustained pattern of foreign money flowing into a New York City mayoral race which is a clear violation of both federal law and New York City campaign finance rules,” Backer added. “Mamdani’s campaign was on notice for months that it was accepting illegal foreign contributions, and yet it did nothing meaningful to stop it.”

The Coolidge Reagan Foundation has previously filed complaints against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and the Democratic National Committee.