New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is actively exploring whether his administration has the legal power to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu should the Israeli prime minister travel to the city for the UN General Assembly in September, he said in an interview with the New York Times published Saturday.
Mamdani characterized Netanyahu as a war criminal deserving prosecution at The Hague, where the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli leader in November 2024 on charges of alleged war crimes in Gaza. The warrant also names other Israeli officials and accuses them of crimes against humanity, including starvation as a method of warfare and murder.
"I believe that prime minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague," Mamdani said on the Times podcast. "He's a war criminal who has been charged by the international criminal court, and what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these past many years."
The mayor acknowledged uncertainty about his authority to order the NYPD to detain a foreign leader. But he said he was in active conversations with the city's law department to determine what options exist. "Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that's what we will do," he added. "But we won't be writing our own laws to that end."
During his successful mayoral campaign last fall, Mamdani made similar vows, telling the Times that he would direct the NYPD to arrest Netanyahu if the prime minister came to New York. He also labeled Israel's military campaign in Gaza as genocide while condemning the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks as a horrific war crime.
Legal experts have previously suggested that carrying out such an arrest would be practically impossible for Mamdani and could pit him against federal authority. The US is not an ICC member and does not recognize the court's jurisdiction. In February, President Trump imposed economic sanctions against the ICC, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has vowed to dismantle the institution.
Netanyahu has dismissed the arrest threat as irrelevant, saying in a recent radio interview that he was unconcerned. He also alleged that Mamdani supports Hamas, a claim the mayor denies. "He's with the terror actors," Netanyahu told WABC. "And I think the problem is that he doesn't recognize and he doesn't care that those who hate the Jews and Israel ultimately hate America."
Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon accused Mamdani, the city's first Muslim mayor, of overlooking rising antisemitism. Mamdani countered that his administration has increased funding for combating hate crimes. Danon said Netanyahu would come to New York to address the UN "with pride" and state Israel's right to self-defense.
Trump's UN Ambassador Mike Waltz called Mamdani's threat "pure political theater," noting that the US does not recognize ICC authority.
Mamdani's position reflects a broader shift within Democratic politics. Close to half of House Democrats voted Wednesday to strip $3.3 billion in military aid to Israel, signaling a crack in what had been unwavering support. The Gaza conflict is energizing voters nationwide. Mamdani said his endorsed candidates swept House races in New York in June, driven in part by voter sentiment on the war.
"It is hard to find a more bankrupt policy approach than what our country has done to Gaza and to Palestine," Mamdani said.
Author James Rodriguez: "Mamdani's legal maneuvering is theater, but it signals real fissures in Democratic consensus on Israel that Trump and Netanyahu can't simply ignore away."
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