‘He’s a war criminal’: Mamdani exploring whether he can arrest Netanyahu if he visits New York | Zohran Mamdani
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said his administration is reviewing whether to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if the Israeli prime minister visits the city for the UN general assembly in September as expected.
Mamdani’s comments on Saturday’s episode of the New York Times Interview podcast He repeated his actions on air when he successfully ran for mayor last fall.
“I believe Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani said, referring to the Dutch city that hosts the international criminal court, which issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024 for alleged war crimes in Gaza. “He is a war criminal indicted by the international criminal court, and you will find that this is a view held by many people simply because of the consequences of his actions in recent years.”
Mamdani said it was unclear to him whether the New York Police Department (NYPD) he oversees had the legal authority to order the arrest of a foreign leader like Netanyahu. But he said he was in “active conversation” with the city’s legal department about the issue.
“We will do whatever the law allows me to do in New York City,” Mamdani added. “But we will not write our own laws for this purpose.”
The ICC’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders charged them with war crimes and crimes against humanity, including “starvation, murder, cruelty and other inhumane acts as a method of warfare” in Gaza.
During the mayoral campaign, Mamdani called Israel’s military actions in Gaza genocide and Netanyahu a war criminal, and told the New York Times in September that he would order the NYPD to arrest Netanyahu if he set foot there. Room condemned On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks against Israel were described as a “horrible war crime.”
The Times report at the time quoted legal experts who judged that arresting Netanyahu “would be practically impossible” for Mamdani and could bring him into direct conflict with the US federal government.
The United States is not a party to the ICC and does not recognize its jurisdiction. And in February 2025, early in his presidency, Donald Trump ordered the court to impose economic sanctions, arguing that the court did not have jurisdiction over the United States or Israel.
Trump’s US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, recently promised to “dissolve” the court, accusing it of waging war against our country “not with bullets or missiles, but with the so-called force of international law.”
Netanyahu, who faces a tough re-election campaign in October, shrugged off Mamdani’s threats of arrest in a recent radio appearance, saying he did not care.
Although Mamdani denied the accusation, Netanyahu also claimed that Mamdani supported Hamas.
Netanyahu said: “Together with terrorist actors” New York’s WABC. “And I think the problem is that he doesn’t realize or care that those who hate Jews and Israel ultimately hate America, too.”
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon accused New York’s first Muslim mayor, Mamdani, of failing to combat rising anti-Semitism in his city. Mamdani disputed such accusations, stating that he had increased funding for an office to combat hate crimes.
“Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will come to New York, proudly speak at the United Nations General Assembly and state before the world Israel’s truth and its unshakable right to defend its citizens,” Danon said. in question.
Trump’s UN Ambassador Mike Waltz dismissed He describes Mamdani’s threat that the US is not a member of the ICC as “pure political theatre”.
World leaders from United Nations member states are expected to travel to New York in September for the organization’s annual meeting. Netanyahu had frequently attended this event in previous years.
“We are not talking about a personal assessment of Benjamin Netanyahu,” Mamdani told the Times podcast. “We’re talking about the international criminal court and the fact that it issued an arrest warrant for this prime minister, and I think it’s important to talk about the severity of this charge and also, as the mayor of New York, I will comply with the laws of New York City.”
Mamdani’s comments on Saturday come at a time when his stance on Israel has become less marginalized within the Democratic Party.
On Wednesday, nearly half of US House Democrats voted to cut $3.3 billion in military aid to Israel. Passing the measure wasn’t enough. However, this also meant that unconditional support for Israel weakened. reflected in public voting.
Asked by the Times about his political weight and U.S. support for Israel, Mamdani said the ongoing war in Gaza has motivated voters across the country, including when his endorsed candidates crushed House races in New York in June.
“It is difficult to find a more bankrupt policy approach than what our country has done to Gaza and Palestine,” he said.
