New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has confirmed that his administration is examining whether it has the legal authority to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he travels to New York for the United Nations General Assembly in September.
“He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court,” Mamdani told The New York Times’ “The Interview” program. “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 ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant earlier this year, alleging that they bear criminal responsibility for using starvation as a method of warfare in Gaza, specifically, the systematic restriction of humanitarian supplies including food, water, fuel, and medicine. The charges also include intentionally directing attacks against civilian populations, murder, and persecution.
Mamdani said his administration is in “active conversation” with the New York City Law Department to determine the limits of mayoral enforcement powers. The question is whether the mayor can direct the NYPD to detain a visiting foreign head of government who is subject to an ICC warrant.
There are substantial legal obstacles. The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, and is therefore not obligated to enforce its warrants. The Trump administration has been actively hostile to the court. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently said Washington would continue efforts to “dismantle” the ICC, accusing it of targeting the United States and its allies.
Visiting foreign leaders also enjoy diplomatic protections when attending the UN General Assembly, complicating any local enforcement action.
Netanyahu’s office responded sharply. “The ICC is a kangaroo court that has no jurisdiction over Americans or Israelis,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. It dismissed the warrant as “bogus,” arguing that former ICC prosecutor Karim Khan issued it “a few days before allegations of sexual misconduct against him became public” in an attempt to “divert public attention.”
The PMO also took aim at Mamdani directly, telling him to “focus on fixing the damage his policies have caused New York” rather than “attacking the leader of the Jewish state.”
Mamdani, a Democrat who campaigned on a progressive platform, has not backed down. “I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” he said. “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.”
Whether the legal review produces an actual arrest attempt or remains a symbolic gesture will depend on what the city’s lawyers conclude. But the fact that a major American city’s mayor is openly exploring the arrest of a sitting head of state on war crimes charges shows how far the Gaza conflict has shifted the political ground.