Mamdani Gets a Reality Check from His Lawyers After Vow to Arrest Netanyahu

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has acknowledged that he lacks the independent legal authority to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, retreating from one of his most provocative promises after City Hall lawyers reviewed the applicable law.

Mamdani had repeatedly floated the possibility of directing New York authorities to detain Netanyahu if the Israeli leader attended the United Nations General Assembly in September. His administration’s legal review, however, concluded that a municipal government cannot enforce an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.

The admission represents a significant reversal from Mamdani’s earlier political rhetoric. During his mayoral campaign and after taking office, the democratic socialist repeatedly portrayed the arrest of Israel’s prime minister as something New York City might carry out.

The ICC issued warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on November 21, 2024. The court alleged that they bore responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Israel’s military campaign against Hamas, including “starvation as a method of warfare, and … murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.” Netanyahu and Israel have rejected the allegations and disputed the court’s jurisdiction.

The United States and Israel are not parties to the Rome Statute that created the ICC. The United States has historically maintained that it has no treaty obligation to execute the court’s warrants and has rejected the ICC’s claimed jurisdiction over citizens of countries that never joined the court.

Israel launched its Gaza campaign after Hamas and allied terrorists invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023. The attackers killed more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and abducted approximately 250 people, including children and Americans.

Mamdani nevertheless embraced the ICC’s accusations as fact and continued singling out the leader of America’s closest Middle Eastern ally.

“I believe Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani told The New York Times last week, referring to the Dutch city where the ICC is located.

The mayor intensified his attack in an online video, branding Netanyahu a “war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people” who is “not welcome in New York City.”

“I agree with the ICC that Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested and tried for his crimes,” Mamdani said.

The mayor had previously said his administration was “in conversation” with city attorneys about whether New York could execute the international warrant. That legal review ultimately confirmed what constitutional and foreign-policy experts had argued from the beginning: The mayor of New York cannot independently enforce an international tribunal’s warrant against a visiting foreign leader.

Mamdani announced the conclusion in a video posted Tuesday.

“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.”

“It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant,” the mayor added. “The federal government, however, does — and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant.”

That demand would require the federal government to reverse America’s longstanding refusal to accept the ICC’s jurisdiction. President Donald Trump’s administration has made clear that no such reversal is coming.

Mamdani continued attacking Netanyahu even while conceding that his threatened arrest could not legally be carried out.

“I want to be equally clear: Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large.”

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Michael Waltz dismissed the mayor’s proposal as political theater and explained why City Hall could not interfere with a visiting foreign leader attending United Nations proceedings.

Waltz said the threatened arrest was “not going to happen.”

“1. The U.S. is not party to the Rome Statute that underlies the ICC, 2. The UN Headquarters Agreement grants diplomatic protections to visiting heads of gov’t, 3. head-of-state immunity applies, & 4. federal authority trumps any local mayor’s wishes. This is pure political theater.”

President Trump delivered an even more definitive response, declaring that Netanyahu would remain protected while visiting the United States.

“The only ones that should be arrested are the people that led Iran into this unprecedented SPIRAL OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION, something that should have been dealt with years ago, by previous Presidents!” he wrote.

Trump separately stated that Netanyahu “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America.”

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon also fired back at Mamdani, accusing the mayor of targeting Israel while providing political cover for hostile regimes and extremist movements.

“If someone should be arrested, it is you … it is you that give coverage to terrorists, and it is you that actually sent his representative to meet with the Iranian ambassador to the UN.”

The reference concerned an attempted meeting between a Mamdani administration official and Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations. City Hall has since claimed that the Iranian consulate initiated the outreach and that Mamdani stopped the meeting after learning about it.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas accused the mayor of applying a blatant double standard by focusing his demands exclusively on Israel while showing far less interest in representatives of openly repressive regimes.

He told Fox News on Wednesday, “Is Zohran Mamdani threatening to arrest butchers from Iran who have killed tens of thousands of their own people, or genuine war criminals from other countries? No. The one person he cites is the leader of the Jewish State of Israel.”

Cotton’s criticism highlights the central political problem with Mamdani’s crusade.

New York City regularly hosts authoritarian rulers, representatives of terrorist-supporting governments, and officials accused of grave human-rights abuses during United Nations gatherings. Yet Mamdani has made the democratically elected prime minister of Israel the defining target of his international activism.

The mayor insists his position would apply universally to anyone facing an ICC warrant. His public rhetoric, however, has remained overwhelmingly focused on Netanyahu and Israel while New Yorkers continue confronting crime, homelessness, high living costs, failing infrastructure, and rising antisemitism.

Foreign policy and the recognition of international courts belong to the federal government, not an ideologically driven mayor attempting to transform the New York Police Department into an enforcement arm for a tribunal the United States does not recognize.

Mamdani’s lawyers have now confirmed that reality.

He can continue condemning Netanyahu, demanding that the United States surrender authority to the ICC, and declaring the Israeli leader unwelcome. What he cannot do is invent an arrest power that neither New York law nor federal law grants him.