Liam Stack
New York: Mayor Zohran Mamdani has challenged the federal government to execute an international arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, calling him a “war criminal” and “the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people” in a striking video statement.
The mayor said the city’s law department explored whether the New York Police Department could arrest the Israeli prime minister during his expected visit to the city in September, but that the city did not have “independent legal authority” to do so.
The mayor’s announcement came days after he said in an interview with The New York Times Magazine that he had been in “active conversation” with the city’s law department about executing a warrant issued for Netanyahu in 2024 by the International Criminal Court.
On Tuesday (US time), Mamdani said in the video that those conversations had led his administration to determine it does “not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant.”
Seated between the flags of the United States and New York City, Mamdani looked directly into the camera and solemnly told New Yorkers that Israel’s prime minister had no place visiting the city.
“Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large,” Mamdani said.
“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.”
There appears to be no chance of federal law enforcement arresting Netanyahu in the near future. President Donald Trump said on Monday that the Israeli leader, whose country is a longtime US ally, would not be arrested in the United States “in any way, shape, or form”.
The US is not a member of the International Criminal Court, which blunts the impact of the court’s warrant.
On Tuesday night, Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon criticised Mamdani’s video in a statement posted online.
“Enough with the blood libels,” Danon said. “You were elected to serve New Yorkers, not Hamas’ propaganda. Do your job!”
Mamdani had said during his mayoral campaign that he would order the Police Department to arrest Netanyahu if he were to visit New York, as the prime minister is expected to do in September for the United Nations General Assembly.
But the legal ability of the mayor to order such a move has long been in doubt. After he discussed the possibility with the Times last week, Mamdani was denounced by Netanyahu’s office, which said he “should focus on fixing the damage his policies have caused New York.”
“Mamdani appears interested in diverting public attention from his follies and attacking the leader of the Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement on Sunday.
The mayor was also denounced on Monday by Danon, who said in an address to the General Assembly that there was “no legal basis” for Mamdani to order the arrest of Netanyahu. Danon accused him of engaging in “political theatre” to energise his “radical base.”
The international court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, in 2024 on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, where more than 70,000 people have been killed in a war that began after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel.
The ICC warrants accused both Netanyahu and Gallant of having “intentionally and knowingly deprived” the population of Gaza of food, water, fuel and medicine, which both Netanyahu and Gallant have denied.
The court also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas’ military chief, Muhammad Deif, for crimes against humanity, but Israel said it had killed Deif in an airstrike before the warrant could be issued.
Israel’s conduct during the war in Gaza has been described as genocide by Israeli and international human rights groups, as well as by two separate UN commissions, one of which issued its findings last month.
Israel has rejected those findings, and Netanyahu’s office said Sunday that “Israel has taken unprecedented wartime measures to minimise harm to civilians while confronting Hamas.”
But Israel’s actions in Gaza have left it deeply isolated on the global stage and increasingly unpopular in the United States, its most important ally.
According to the Pew Research Centre, polls show that a majority of Americans now hold a negative view of Israel, including majorities of adults under age 50 in both political parties.
Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, that number rises to 80 per cent.
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