New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he would not arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he comes to New York City, a pledge he made while campaigning for mayor last year.
Netanyahu is expected to visit New York City in September for the annual United Nations General Assembly. Mamdani told The New York Times last week that he was “in active conversation” with the city’s law department over the matter, but said on Tuesday that he does not have the legal authority to enforce the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant out for Netanyahu. President Donald Trump responded to the mayor’s earlier comments in a Monday Truth Social post, saying the prime minister would not be arrested “in any way, shape or form” in the U.S.
During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani pledged to order the New York Police Department to arrest Netanyahu if he were to come to New York City. He reaffirmed his desire to do so on Tuesday in a two-minute video, calling the prime minister the “architect of a horrific genocide of the Palestinian people.”
“My administration has reviewed every avenue available under applicable law to determine whether New York City could execute the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant if Benjamin Netanyahu came here,” Mamdani said. “It is clear we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant.”
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He instead turned the onus to arrest Netanyahu onto the federal government, which is unlikely to do so: “I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant.”
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024, accusing them of crimes against humanity including murder, starvation, persecution, and attacks on Gazans.
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