SerpApi.Org
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Tuesday that the city doesn’t have the authority to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but he urged the federal government to execute the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for the Israeli leader.
The mayor, a sharp critic of the Israeli government, had said earlier that he was exploring whether the prime minister could be arrested on a visit to New York. Mamdani accused Netanyahu of committing genocide in Gaza, a charge the Israeli government has rejected.
“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,” the mayor said in a video posted on social media Tuesday night.
He said that his administration had reviewed every available avenue to determine whether city authorities could arrest Netanyahu.
“It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant,” he added. “The federal government, however, does, and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant.”
The ICC in the Netherlands issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in 2024 over alleged war crimes in Gaza. The U.S. doesn’t recognize the court, unlike the ICC’s 125 member countries that are technically obliged to enforce its arrest warrants.
President Trump said on Monday that Netanyahu wouldn’t be arrested in the U.S. after Mamdani said earlier that he was probing the city’s authority to detain the prime minister. Netanyahu is expected to visit New York in September for the United Nations General Assembly.
The office of the Israeli prime minister said on social media Sunday that the ICC was a kangaroo court and the mayor was attempting to distract from his administration’s shortcomings.
Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said Mamdani’s criticism of Israel was out of line. “You were elected to serve New Yorkers,” he wrote on social media Tuesday. “Do your job!”
Mamdani said in the video that Netanyahu isn’t welcome in New York City. He blamed the prime minister for thousands of deaths in Gaza in addition to blockades of food and humanitarian aid.
“Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people,” he said.
The mayor, a Democratic socialist, has alienated some moderate Democrats and Jewish New Yorkers with his criticism of the Israeli government. But the issue of Israel’s conduct in Gaza dominated the New York June primaries in which Mamdani-backed candidates won.
Write to Alyssa Lukpat at [email protected]