Mamdani backs down from arresting Netanyahu, the New York City mayor said Tuesday night, posting on X that his administration does not have the legal authority to detain the Israeli prime minister if he visits the city this fall for the UN General Assembly.
“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 wrote. “It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant. The federal government, however, does, and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant.”
President Trump had already ruled that path out days earlier, saying Netanyahu will not be arrested “in any way, shape, or form” during his planned September visit — a position that leaves Mamdani’s request with nowhere to go.
Even as Mamdani backs down on enforcement, he didn’t soften his view of Netanyahu. “Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal,” he wrote, adding that Netanyahu is “not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large.” He said that while New York “cannot end the genocide on our own,” the city can decide “whether our silence will become another weapon.”
How the Dispute Started
The exchange traces back to an earlier interview in which Mamdani declined to rule out attempting to arrest Netanyahu if he returned to New York. Netanyahu’s office responded over the weekend with a statement posted to X criticizing both Mamdani and the International Criminal Court, the body that issued the warrant against him.
The ICC issued its arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024, citing allegations tied to the conduct of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The warrant also named former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant. Israel is not a member of the court, established under the 1998 Rome Statute, and has rejected its jurisdiction outright.
Why No US City Can Enforce It
The United States is also not a member of the ICC and does not recognize its authority over Israeli officials a position both the Biden and Trump administrations have held consistently. That’s the legal reality underneath Mamdani’s statement: no mayor, in any American city, has a mechanism to enforce an ICC warrant on their own, regardless of their personal views on the underlying conflict. The same jurisdictional gap has applied to other ICC warrant subjects who have traveled to the US in the past, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has an outstanding ICC warrant tied to the war in Ukraine and has not faced any US arrest attempt during international travel.
Background on the Mayor
Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, took office as New York’s mayor this year after a campaign that included sharp criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, a position that drew both strong support and significant opposition throughout the race. Netanyahu is expected in New York in September for the UN General Assembly, a recurring event that regularly brings world leaders, including those facing legal or political controversy, into the city under federal and State Department security arrangements rather than NYPD jurisdiction alone. Previous UN General Assembly sessions have drawn similar security and protest disputes involving foreign leaders under international scrutiny, though rarely with a sitting mayor issuing a public statement on enforcement of an ICC warrant.
