New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said his administration is still examining whether it has any legal basis to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he attends the United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States, in September.
Speaking on The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast, Mamdani disclosed that the city’s legal team is reviewing the issue, following his campaign pledge to seek Netanyahu’s arrest if he visited New York.
“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani said. “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 last many years.”
When asked what legal authority he believed his office had, the mayor said the matter remained under review.
“That’s an active conversation with our legal department. However, what we’ve seen at the national level is a desire sometimes to write your own laws, to go outside of the bounds of legality. That’s not something we have an interest in.”
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other Israeli officials in 2024, alleging war crimes linked to Israel’s military campaign following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack. Both President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden have publicly rejected the ICC’s decision.
The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the ICC, and is therefore not obligated to enforce its arrest warrants. The Trump administration has also intensified its criticism of the court, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently vowing to “dismantle” the ICC and accusing it of “waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles” but with “the force of so-called international law.”
Mamdani has consistently condemned Israel’s military operations in Gaza, describing them as a “genocide,” an allegation the Israeli government strongly denies.
Reacting to the mayor’s remarks, US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz dismissed the proposal on Saturday as “pure political theater,” stressing that the United States is not a member of the ICC.
Earlier in the week, Netanyahu brushed aside Mamdani’s comments during an interview with WABC radio host Sid Rosenberg.
Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, reaffirmed that Netanyahu intends to attend the UN General Assembly.
He said on social media on Saturday that Netanyahu “will come to New York, address the United Nations General Assembly with pride, and stand before the world to state Israel’s truth and its unwavering right to defend its citizens.”
