UPDATE – ‘I served you as the mayor’: Outgoing NYC mayor tells Jews in occupied East Jerusalem

UPDATES WITH MEETING WITH NETANYAHU

By Betul Yilmaz and Rania Abu Shamala

ISTANBUL (AA) – New York’s outgoing mayor, Eric Adams, said during his visit to Israel that he “served” Israeli Jews as the mayor of the US city.

“I wanted to come back here to Israel and let you know that I served you as the mayor,” Adams said on Sunday in the occupied East Jerusalem.

Adams departed New York on Saturday for a multi-day trip to Israel to meet government officials and visit religious sites, according to his office.

“But I want to continue to have the title that's more important to me than anything: I’m your brother,” Adams said.

The outgoing mayor also met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Adams in Kirya in Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu “thanked NYC Mayor Adams for his great support of Israel and for being a true friend of the Jewish people,” the premier’s office said in a statement on the US social media company X.

Adams will leave on Jan. 1 after Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral elections.

Elected on Nov. 4, Mamdani, 34, became the first Muslim and South Asian mayor of the nation's largest city.