NYC Mayor Mamdani Says He May Still Order Netanyahu’s Arrest If He Visits New York Later This September

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said this week that his administration is still weighing whether to order the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he travel to the city for the United Nations General Assembly in September, reviving a controversial pledge Mamdani made during his mayoral campaign.

Speaking with Lulu Garcia-Navarro on The New York Times show “The Interview,” Mamdani said he continues to believe Netanyahu should face prosecution over Israel’s conduct in Gaza. “I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in the Hague,” Mamdani said, referring to the seat of the International Criminal Court. “He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court,” Mamdani added. “And what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these last many years.”

Mamdani acknowledged uncertainty over whether he possesses the legal authority to direct the New York Police Department, which falls under his oversight as mayor, to detain a sitting foreign head of state. He said his administration remains in “an active conversation” with the city’s Law Department to determine the scope of his authority on the matter. “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.

The comments echo a pledge Mamdani made during his mayoral campaign last year, when he told The Times he would direct the police department to arrest Netanyahu if given the opportunity, framing the move as an effort to honor an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over Netanyahu’s role in the war in Gaza. Mamdani and a United Nations commission have both characterized the conflict as a genocide, a designation Israel has strongly disputed.

Netanyahu responded to Mamdani’s renewed comments during a recent appearance on a radio program hosted by Sid Rosenberg, a frequent critic of the mayor. Netanyahu said he was not concerned about the prospect of arrest and accused Mamdani of aligning himself with Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls significant portions of Gaza and carried out the October 7, 2023, attack in Israel that preceded the current war. “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.” Netanyahu went on to say, “Who does he champion? Hamas, that calls openly to massacre every Jew on earth, that conducted that horrible massacre, the worst massacre on Jews since the Holocaust.” He further claimed that Mamdani “doesn’t care” that “those who hate the Jews and Israel ultimately hate America,” adding, “And in fact I think secretly, he hates America.”

Mamdani has consistently condemned the October 7 attacks and does not speak favorably of Hamas when discussing his criticisms of Netanyahu, though he has made his concerns about Israel’s conduct in Gaza a central and recurring theme of his political identity. Associates who know him well have said he views Palestinian liberation as one of the defining moral issues of his generation.

Mamdani’s positions on Israel, once considered outside the Democratic Party’s mainstream, have gained broader traction within the party in recent months. Nearly half of House Democrats voted this week in favor of ending U.S. aid to Israel, a measure that ultimately failed to pass but signaled a notable shift in the party’s posture toward one of its longstanding allies in the Middle East. Asked about the political significance of the Gaza war, Mamdani said the issue has motivated voters nationally, including in recent House races in New York where candidates he endorsed won their elections. “It is hard to find a more bankrupt policy approach than what our country has done to Gaza and to Palestine,” he said.

The wide-ranging interview also touched on national politics, with Mamdani speaking positively about the possibility that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a fellow member of the Democratic Socialists of America, could run for president in 2028. “I think she’d make a good anything,” Mamdani said.

On immigration, Mamdani criticized the Trump administration’s enforcement approach while stressing that border security remains important to him. He said his administration is “willing to work with the federal government” in cases involving immigrants convicted of serious crimes, but drew a firm line against broader cooperation. “What we are unwilling to do is to participate in civil immigration enforcement with a federal government that has said openly it wants to deport a vast majority of people for crimes that we will never even know,” he said.

Mamdani also defended his police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, against criticism from some fellow democratic socialists, crediting her with helping to reduce crime in the city, even as some of his own supporters have raised concerns about the frequency of low-level arrests conducted under her leadership.

The mayor addressed the media attention surrounding his wife, artist Rama Duwaji, who has largely stayed out of the public eye during his time in office but has faced criticism over past social media activity, including liking a post that celebrated Hamas’s October 7 attack. “She is her own person,” Mamdani said. “She’s an incredible artist, and yet so much of how she engages with the world today is framed through her being my wife.”

Mamdani also reflected on how he defines economic struggle in a city with a high cost of living, an issue central to his political rise. Asked whether someone earning $250,000 annually could be considered working class, he said he had not set a specific income threshold, instead focusing on people’s ability to afford basic necessities. “What I would say is those who are working to try and afford the basic dignities of life and aren’t able to do so, I think that that is also working class,” he said. When pressed on whether that framing could group a janitor with a lawyer, Mamdani said he was less concerned with rigid definitions than with a broader question facing residents: “Is there any way for them to actually be able to work this hard and afford a good life in the city?”

Reflecting on his rapid rise to national political prominence, Mamdani offered a candid assessment of the mindset required for the role. “I think there is some level of absurdity that you have to have as a part of yourself to believe that it should be you,” he said.