New York mayor Zohran Mamdani engaged in political theater when he recently reiterated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal and should be arrested if he sets foot in the city.
Netanyahu intends to travel to New York to attend the new session of the United Nations General Assembly, which opens on September 8. As Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said, “Netanyahu will come to New York, address the General Assembly with pride, and stand before the world to state Israel’s truth and its unwavering right to defend its citizens.”
Mamdani’s comments notwithstanding, there is no danger that Netanyahu risks detention. As U.S. President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post on July 20, “Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America.”
Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor and an avowed anti-Zionist, has been criticizing Israel since his days as a pro-Palestinian university student. But as mayor, he seems to have been clearly aware that he has no authority to arrest Netanyahu, whose conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip from 2023 onward led the International Criminal Court in 2024 to accuse him, unjustly, of perpetrating a genocide, an accusation he stoutly denies.
During his election campaign last year, Mamdani said he would order the police department to arrest Netanyahu under the warrant issued by that court.
And in an interview with The New Yolk Times a few days ago, he said he was discussing that possibility with his advisors, though he admitted he was unsure whether he had the legal right to take that drastic step. “Whatever the law allows me to do … that’s what we will do,” he said.
According to The New York Times, he had already been advised by lawyers that he could not arrest Netanyahu. And yet he raised that incendiary issue again in a two-minute video, upsetting many Jewish New Yorkers, who love and support Israel, but who do not necessarily agree with Netanyahu’s policies with respect to the Palestinians.
“Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people,” said Mamdani, an ardent supporter of the far-left Democratic Socialists. But, he noted, “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 International Criminal Court and execute this warrant.”
Mamdani’s video went viral, eliciting more than 66 million views, making it the most-viewed clip he has ever released. As observers pointed out, it immediately reinforced his stature as a prominent voice of the international left, raised his profile in the city, and let him pour scorn on Netanyahu and Israel.
“The message seemed designed to assure his supporters that he remained steadfast in his criticism of Israel despite his inability to make good on his campaign vow, while reassuring others that he would not overstep his authority,” The New York Times said.
By withdrawing his threat to arrest Netanyahu, Mamdani avoided a public clash with his Jewish police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, who is resolutely pro-Israel. News reports suggest that she had no intention of arresting Netanyahu, and that the police department had no such authority.
In calling for Netanyahu’s arrest, Mamdani knew that the United States is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court and is not bound by its decisions. Indeed, a succession of U.S. presidents refused to sign the Rome Statute, which underpins the International Criminal Court, because it would allow foreign powers to interfere in American justice and let them stand in judgment over American politicians and soldiers.
“In any case, Mamdani maintained his absurd promise to arrest Netanyahu after being elected because he knew that his base would enjoy it, and because it would help elevate his own profile,” the pundit Douglas Murray wrote in a scathing commentary.
The UJA-Federation of New York levelled a more serious accusation against Mamdani. “New Yorkers elected a mayor to lead this city — not to make Israel the centerpiece of your political grandstanding. Your video is rife with distortions and disinformation. And at a time of rising antisemitism, repeatedly singling out and vilifying the world’s only Jewish state for perceived political benefit is repugnant, puts Jews at greater risk — and leaves many Jewish New Yorkers feeling targeted and unwelcome in the city we call home.”
Mark Treyger, the chief executive officer of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, was just as incensed about his video. “It further inflames tensions in the city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel, and distracts from urgent local responsibilities.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center said, “Mayor Mamdani did not simply express a personal political opinion. He used the authority, symbolism and credibility of the mayor’s office to issue what amounted to an official public address declaring that the democratically elected leader of the world’s only Jewish state is a ‘war criminal’ who is ‘not welcome’ in New York City. That is a profound misuse of the office entrusted to him by all New Yorkers.”
“This isn’t just political theater,” Anti-Defamation League chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on X, noting that hate crimes targeting Jews in New York have risen precipitously since Hamas’ attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. “It’s a dangerous dereliction of duty. He remains relentlessly obsessed with the world’s only Jewish state — even as Jewish New Yorkers face record levels of antisemitism and the city confronts urgent problems that demand his attention.”
From the critics’ perspective, it is clear that Mamdani is abusing his office to advance his intense anti-Israel agenda, which forms a significant part of his political identity.
Yet it should be recognized that his noxious opinions are no longer confined to the fringes of the Democratic Party, which is gradually turning against Israel. In short, Mamdani has become one of the faces of anti-Israel advocacy in the United States.