Netanyahu arrest warrant dispute widens after Mamdani says he is unwelcome
Benjamin Netanyahu said he still plans to address the U.N. in New York despite Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s call for federal action.
By Sofia Marchetti · World Affairs Correspondent
3 min read
The Netanyahu arrest warrant dispute intensified after Israel’s prime minister said New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani was “fomenting hate” by urging action if Netanyahu travels to the city for the U.N. General Assembly, the Associated Press reported. Benjamin Netanyahu said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that he still intends to visit New York in September to address world leaders.
Mamdani said last week that New York City lacks legal authority to carry out an International Criminal Court warrant against Netanyahu, but he urged the federal government to act, according to AP. In a video message, Mamdani said Netanyahu was not welcome in New York City and referred to him as a war criminal.
Netanyahu accused the mayor of dividing residents. “He’s supposed to be the mayor of all New Yorkers — Jews, Christians, Muslims, everyone,” Netanyahu said on the Fox program. “But he’s trying to turn one group against the other.”
Can New York City arrest Netanyahu?
Mamdani has acknowledged that the city does not have the legal power to execute the ICC warrant, AP reported. He said federal authorities should step in, while telling New Yorkers that protest would be respected.
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond Sunday to AP’s request for comment.
The ICC, based in The Hague, has accused Netanyahu, his former defense minister and the late leader of Hamas of crimes against humanity. Netanyahu rejected the charges Sunday as “bogus” and said the warrant was meant to distract from sexual misconduct allegations against the ICC’s top prosecutor, who AP reported was removed from that post Friday.
The dispute comes as Netanyahu remains a sharply contested figure over Israel’s war in Gaza. AP reported that the war began after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians. Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 73,000 people have been killed in Israel’s offensive, about half of them women and children.
AP also reported that Israel joined the United States in starting a war against Iran on Feb. 28 and later launched a ground invasion in southern Lebanon after fire from Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed group.
What did Trump say about Netanyahu?
President Donald Trump told Netanyahu in a social media post Monday that he “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America,” according to AP.
Netanyahu is expected to be in Washington this week to meet Trump and attend funeral services for Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, AP reported. Graham, described by AP as a leading defense hawk and strong supporter of Israel, died suddenly two weeks ago of a likely torn aorta; Netanyahu called him an “extraordinary American patriot.”
Netanyahu also said he was worried that U.S. support for Israel, once broadly bipartisan, is weakening as progressive and far-left Democrats aligned with Mamdani’s wing of the party divide over the issue, according to AP. He warned about rising antisemitism in the United States and other Western countries, saying that Jews he speaks with in New York City feel “very uncomfortable.”
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.