New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said his administration is actively investigating whether it has a legal avenue to order Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest if he visits New York for the United Nations General Assembly in September.
By speaking to The New York Times In an interview published on Saturday (July 18), Mamdani reiterated his position that Netanyahu is a “war criminal” who “belongs in The Hague.”
He pointed to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant issued for Netanyahu in November 2024 over allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza war.
The mayor also mentioned that he was in “active conversations” with the city’s law department to determine whether he could order the NYPD to arrest a foreign leader.
He said: “Whatever the law allows me to do in New York, that’s what we will do, but we will not write our own laws for that purpose. »
The arrest is sure to face major legal hurdles, as the United States does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction and President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the court in February 2025.
Earlier, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said the mayor did not have the legal authority to arrest Netanyahu.
Netanyahu, who is running for office, brushed off Mamdani’s comments on air this week, saying the mayor condemned “Israel, the only democracy that stands with America in respecting its values.”
Mamdani, a staunch opponent of Israeli military action against Gaza, criticized the Hamas attack in October 2023 that sparked the war.
