New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called on the federal government to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he called a “war criminal” and “the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people” in a solemn video statement Tuesday evening.
“Anyone, with their eyes, with their heart, with their conscience, should recognize the devastation he has wrought and understand that he belongs before a court of law,” Mamdani said in the video, adding that he agrees with the International Criminal Court, which issued a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest in November 2024 on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. According to Palestinian health ministry figures, more than 73,000 people have been killed as part of Israel’s military response to Hamas’ October 2023 terrorist attack.
Mamdani previously said his administration was working with the New York City Law Department to determine whether New York police have the legal authority to arrest Netanyahu during his expected visit to the city in September to attend the U.N. General Assembly.
The mayor on Tuesday said the law department determined that the city lacks the independent legal authority to enforce the ICC warrant to arrest the Israeli prime minister, one of his defining campaign trail promises, but he said the federal government can and should.
“It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant,” Mamdani said. “The federal government, however, does, and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant. And I want to be equally clear: Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large”
The United States, like Israel, is not a member of the ICC and does not recognize its authority. President Donald Trump has made clear that his administration has no intention of joining the ICC and that he opposes any effort to arrest Netanyahu.
“Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday.
The president added that Netanyahu is “fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran” and that “the only ones that should be arrested are the people that led Iran into this unprecedented SPIRAL OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION.”
Netanyahu launched a joint military campaign with the U.S. in Iran in February, but he has since had a strained relationship with Trump over Israel’s continued ground invasion and presence in southern Lebanon, which U.S. negotiators worry could imperil a potential peace deal with Tehran.
The Israeli prime minister’s office called the ICC’s arrest warrant against him “bogus” in a statement that also condemned Mamdani’s comments as an attempt to attack “the leader of the Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East.”
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