‘He’s a war criminal’: Mamdani exploring whether he can arrest Netanyahu if he visits New York

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has said he was reviewing whether his administration could arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if as expected the Israeli prime minister visits the city for the UN general assembly in September.Mamdani’s comments on Saturday’s episode of the New York Times’s the Interview podcast echoed ones he had made to the publication as he successfully ran for mayor last fall.“I believe that prime minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani said, referring to the Dutch city that is home to the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024 over alleged war crimes in Gaza. “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.”Mamdani said it was unclear to him whether he has the legal authority to order the New York Police Department (NYPD), which he oversees, to detain a foreign leader like Netanyahu. But he said he was in “an active conversation” with the city’s law department about the matter.“Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we will do,” Mamdani added. “But we won’t be writing our own laws to that end.”The warrant which the ICC issued for the arrest of Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders accused them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including “starvation as a method of warfare, and … murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani characterized Israel’s military actions in Gaza as a genocide and Netanyahu as a war criminal, telling the New York Times in September that he would order NYPD to arrest Netanyahu in the event he ever set foot there. He also condemned the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel as a “horrific war crime”.The Times report back then cited legal experts who judged that having Netanyahu arrested “would be a practical impossibility” for Mamdani – and could bring him into direct conflict with the US’s federal government.The US is not a party to the ICC and does not recognize its authority. And in February 2025, early in his presidency, Donald Trump ordered economic sanctions against the court, maintaining that it lacked jurisdiction over the US or Israel.Trumps’s US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, then recently vowed to “dismantle” the court, accusing it of “waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles” but with “the force of so-called international law”.Netanyahu, who faces a tough re-election campaign in October, brushed off Mamdani’s arrest threats in a recent radio appearance, saying he was not concerned.Though Mamdani denies the accusation, Netanyahu also alleged Mamdani supports Hamas.“He’s with the terror actors,” Netanyahu told New York’s 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 ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, accused Mamdani – New York’s first Muslim mayor – of failing to confront rising antisemitism in his city. Mamdani has countered such accusations by noting that he has increased funding for an office to combat hate crimes.“Israeli Prime Minister 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,” Danon said.Trump’s ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, also dismissed Mamdani’s threat as “pure political theater”, saying the US is not a member of the ICC.World leaders from United Nations member-states are expected to travel to New York in September for the body’s annual session. Netanyahu has often participated in this event in previous years.“We’re 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 they have a warrant out for this prime minister’s arrest, and I think it’s important to talk about the weight that that has as a charge and that also, as the mayor of New York City, I’ll be following the laws of New York City.”Mamdani’s comments on Saturday came as his stance on Israel is becoming less fringe within the Democratic party.Close to half of US House Democrats on Wednesday voted to strip $3.3bn in military aid to Israel. It was not enough to pass the measure. But it signified a buckling of unconditional support for Israel, a shift that is also reflected in public opinion polling.Asked by the Times about the political weight he places on Israel and support for it by the US, Mamdani said ongoing war in Gaza was motivating voters throughout the country, including when his endorsed candidates swept House races in New York in June.“It is hard to find a more bankrupt policy approach than what our country has done to Gaza and to Palestine,” he said.