New York (CNN) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a new video Tuesday that he does not have the legal authority to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he were to come to New York City.
“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 said in a video posted on X. “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.”
The post comes just days after Mamdani told The New York Times that he was working with his administration’s legal team on how to execute the arrest of Netanyahu for his “alleged war crimes.”
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders in 2024, accusing them of war crimes during and after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel – allegations that Israel has denied.
In his video, Mamdani repeated that he believed Netanyahu was a war criminal and that he “is not welcome in New York City.”
“While we cannot end the genocide on our own, we can decide whether our silence will become another weapon, and we can examine every tool we have to defend the humanity and dignity of all people,” Mamdani said.
His video was denounced by Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, who said on X: “You were elected to serve New Yorkers, not Hamas’ propaganda. Do your job!”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization based in Los Angeles, accused Mamdani of a “profound misuse of the office entrusted to him by all New Yorkers.”
“This is no longer simply about Prime Minister Netanyahu,” the center said in a statement. “It reflects a broader pattern in which Mayor Mamdani repeatedly singles out Israel while using the prestige of his office to legitimize rhetoric that further isolates the Jewish state and deepens division here at home.”
Asked Wednesday if he would call Hamas’ October 7 attacks a genocide, Mamdani said the group committed “a horrific war crime.”
“I know that there are Jewish New Yorkers who agree with my analysis, there are those who disagree with my analysis, and my responsibility to them is to ensure that they are cherished, they are celebrated, and they are safe in their city,” he said.
The Israeli prime minister could visit New York later this year to attend the United Nations’ general assembly. His office previously accused Mamdani of “diverting public attention from his follies and attacking the leader of the Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East.”
President Donald Trump weighed in earlier on the debate on Truth Social Monday, saying Netanyahu “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form.”
Mamdani, a fierce critic of the Israeli government who has repeatedly condemned Israel’s military operations in Gaza as a “genocide,” discussed the possibility of arresting Netanyahu while on the campaign trail last year.
CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig on Monday criticized the idea that Mamdani would be able to execute the arrest, arguing that he has no law enforcement authority.
“It is utterly ridiculous for the mayor of New York City to even suggest that he might have the authority to order the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu or any visiting foreign head of state,” Honig said on CNN’s “The Source.”
The US has not ratified the Rome Statute, which obliges countries to arrest people who have ICC warrants against them, he further noted, adding that “the conduct of foreign diplomacy, foreign affairs, is entirely up to the federal government.”
Both Trump and former President Joe Biden denounced the ICC warrant against Netanyahu.
During Trump’s second term, his administration has escalated its long-running battle against the ICC, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently promising to “dismantle” the court and accusing it of “waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles” but with “the force of so-called international law.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
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