Mamdani asks city lawyers about possible Netanyahu arrest
New York’s mayor says he is reviewing what city law permits if Israel’s prime minister attends the UN General Assembly in September.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
3 min read
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani says he is consulting city lawyers about whether local authorities could arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he travels to the city for the United Nations General Assembly in September. The question puts Mamdani’s campaign pledge against the legal limits of city power over a foreign leader facing an International Criminal Court warrant.
Mamdani discussed the issue in an interview with The Interview, a New York Times program released Saturday, according to Al Jazeera. He repeated his position that Netanyahu should face legal accountability over Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in the Hague,” Mamdani told The New York Times. He also said Netanyahu is “a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court,” adding that many people share that view because of the consequences of Netanyahu’s actions in recent years.
Mayor says city will stay within the law
Al Jazeera reported that the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu over possible crimes against humanity in Gaza. Mamdani, a democratic socialist and prominent supporter of the Palestinian cause, had promised during his mayoral campaign that he would seek Netanyahu’s arrest if the Israeli leader came to New York City.
Asked whether he has the power to carry out that pledge, Mamdani said he is in “active conversation” with the city’s law department. He told The New York Times that his administration would act only within existing legal authority.
“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,” Mamdani said.
Netanyahu responded in an interview with radio host Sid Rosenberg, according to Al Jazeera. Asked about Mamdani’s comments, Netanyahu said he thinks the New York mayor secretly “hates America.”
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said Netanyahu still plans to attend the UN General Assembly session in New York in September, despite Mamdani’s threat of arrest, Al Jazeera reported.
Israel debate shifts among Democrats
Mamdani faced frequent Islamophobic abuse and insults during his mayoral campaign, according to Al Jazeera. Rosenberg called him a “cockroach” during the race and later apologized, Al Jazeera reported.
Al Jazeera described Mamdani’s election and his stance on Netanyahu as part of a wider shift among Democratic voters over Israel. A May poll cited by Al Jazeera found that nearly three-quarters of Democratic voters opposed U.S. aid to Israel, compared with 45 percent three years earlier.
The same poll found that nearly half of respondents believed the Democratic Party was too supportive of Israel, according to Al Jazeera. The report said a growing number of human rights groups, international officials and scholars have described Israel’s war in Gaza as genocide.
That shift has not produced a broad policy change among the party’s national leadership, which includes strong supporters of Israel, Al Jazeera reported. Still, nearly half of Democratic members of the U.S. House voted earlier this week to end U.S. aid to Israel, a sign of changing party politics over the war, according to the report.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.