NYC Mayor weighs legal options to arrest Netanyahu during UN visit, report says

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed Saturday that his administration is examining whether it has the legal authority to detain Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he travel to the city for the UN General Assembly in September, according to The New York Times.

In an interview on the newspaper’s The Interview podcast with Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Mamdani stated, "I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague. He's a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court."

The mayor said he is in "an active conversation" with the city's Law Department to determine if he can lawfully direct the NYPD to take a foreign leader into custody. "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," he added.

Mamdani had made similar pledges during his mayoral campaign, vowing to enforce the ICC's arrest warrant against Netanyahu if the Israeli leader set foot in New York.

Netanyahu pushed back on the idea in a recent radio interview, accusing Mamdani of supporting Hamas. "I think he should look at who he's condemning, who he's praising," Netanyahu said. "He's condemning Israel, the one democracy that stands shoulder to shoulder with American values."

Mamdani has consistently criticized Israel's military operations in Gaza while also condemning the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.

Beyond the Netanyahu question, the mayor also took aim at U.S. policy toward Gaza, saying it is "hard to find a more bankrupt policy approach than what our country has done to Gaza and to Palestine." He voiced support for a potential 2028 presidential run by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, defended Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch's leadership, criticized President Trump's immigration policies while favoring cooperation on serious crimes, and identified affordability as the single biggest challenge facing New Yorkers.   (Anadolu Agency)