Mamdani says city cannot arrest Netanyahu

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani says his administration lacks the legal authority to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits the city, stepping back from a campaign pledge while urging the federal government to act on an International Criminal Court warrant instead.

Mamdani said Tuesday that his team had reviewed “every avenue available” under the law and concluded that “we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this.” He added: “The federal government, however, does — and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant.”

The mayor repeated that call at a Wednesday press conference. “I call on the federal government to join the international criminal court and to execute both this warrant as well as any warrant the international criminal court holds,” he told reporters, according to The Guardian.

The comments followed an interview with The New York Times in which Mamdani said he was having “an active conversation” with law enforcement about the possibility of enforcing the ICC warrant. During his mayoral campaign, he had pledged to seek Netanyahu’s arrest if the Israeli leader came to New York.

Netanyahu is expected to travel to New York in September for the United Nations General Assembly. Mamdani said in a video posted on social media that Netanyahu is “not welcome” in the city and called him a “war criminal.” In the Times interview, he said: “I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague. He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court.”

The ICC issued arrest warrants in 2024 for Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including “starvation as a method of warfare, and … murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts,” The Guardian reported. The court also issued a warrant for a Hamas commander, the BBC reported.

The ICC can prosecute people accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes on the territory of countries that are party to the Rome Statute, its founding treaty. The United States and Israel are not members of the court. Technically, Netanyahu could be arrested if he entered an ICC member state and handed over to the court, but the United States is not one.

President Donald Trump said Netanyahu would not be “arrested, in any way, shape or form” while in the United States. In a Truth Social post Monday, Trump said Netanyahu “is fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which recently killed 52,000 innocent protestors [sic], and has spent the last 47 years killing American Soldiers, and others.” The Guardian reported that Trump also said “the only ones that should be arrested are the people that led Iran into this unprecedented spiral of death and destruction.”

Mamdani’s position has drawn criticism from pro-Israel officials. Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, told the mayor: “You were elected to serve New Yorkers, not Hamas’ propaganda.” Jonathan Harounoff, Israel’s former international spokesperson at the UN, told NY1, “I think the mayor should stay in his lane,” and accused him of “political theater.” Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania called Mamdani a “clown” in a Fox News interview and said, “America’s not even part of that corrupt court. That’s really not your purview.”

Netanyahu has previously said he was “not concerned” by Mamdani’s threat. His office said last week that the mayor “appears interested in diverting public attention from his follies and attacking the leader of the Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East,” and called the ICC a “kangaroo court,” The Guardian reported.

Mamdani rejected arguments that Israel’s conduct in Gaza is not relevant to New York City, saying it has “offended the conscience, the morals, the mere humanity of so many New Yorkers.” Some pro-Palestinian advocates praised his statement for “moral clarity,” while others expressed disappointment that he had walked back his promise to pursue an arrest.