NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani said his administration is actively seeking whether it has a legal route to order the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York City for the United Nations General Assembly in September.
While talking to The New York Times in an interview published Saturday, July 18, Mamdani reiterated his stance that Netanyahu is a “war criminal” who “belongs in The Hague.”
He referred to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant that was issued against Netanyahu in November 2024 over allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war in Gaza.
Mayor also mentioned that he is in “an active conversation” with the city’s Law Department to explore whether he can direct the New York Police Department to detain a foreign leader.
He said: “Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we will do, but we won’t be writing our own laws to that end.”
The arrest will certainly face major legal hurdles as the United States does not recognise the ICC’s jurisdiction, and President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the court in February 2025.
Earlier, New York Governor Kathy Hochul stated that the mayor does not have legal authority to arrest Netanyahu.
Netanyahu, who is running for re-election, brushed aside Mamdani’s comments on the air this week, saying the mayor was condemning “Israel, the only democracy that stands alongside America in upholding its values.”
Mamdani, a fierce opponent of Israel’s military action against Gaza, has criticised the Hamas attack carried out in October 2023 that ignited the war.
