Likud’s depiction of Zohran Mamdani is latest move in spat between Israel’s prime minister and New York City mayor

Benjamin Netanyahu’s party has compared the New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, to the leaders of Iran and Hezbollah on a campaign billboard.

The billboard in central Tel Aviv depicts Mamdani alongside the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and the chief of the militant group Hezbollah, Naim Qassem.

“They want Netanyahu to lose … Don’t let them win,” says the poster featuring the logo of Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party.

Netanyahu has entered campaign mode to keep his far-right coalition in power after the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, was dissolved in July before elections in October – the first since the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023.