Mamdani looking into legality of arresting Netanyahu in NYC during UN Assembly

Nicholas Williams, New York Daily News on Jul 18, 2026

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NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani is exploring the possibility of arresting Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu when he arrives in New York City in September for the United Nations General Assembly.

Mamdani told The New York Times on Saturday that he was in “an active conversation” with the city’s Law Department, probing if he had legal authority to order the New York Police Department to detain the Israeli leader.

“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani said on a New York Times show. “He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court 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 noted that he won’t be pushing for loopholes and will do “whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we will do”

This comes after a poll found that more American Jews approve of how Mamdani is doing his job than Netanyahu, as younger and more liberal Jews grow increasingly disenchanted with the actions of the Israeli government and the war against Hamas in Gaza.

A national poll of more than 1,000 Jewish Americans showed 44% view Mamdani favorably compared to 39% who have an unfavorable opinion, the survey by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu was viewed favorably by 32% of American Jews, with 59% viewing him negatively, per the survey.

Mamdani was less popular with the U.S. public as a whole, with 28% disapproving of him, 27% approving of him and 44% unable to rate him, according to the poll.

Netanyahu was less unpopular with Americans as a whole than with Jews, with 38% disapproving of him, 20% approving of him and 41% not expressing an opinion.

Mamdani, before becoming mayor, made his intentions clear, vowing if elected to order the NYPD to arrest Netanyahu on war crime charges leveled against him by the International Criminal Court. Speaking last September before Netanyahu addressed the U.N. General Assembly, the democratic socialist said the Israeli prime minister would be speaking to “an institution which has concluded his government has committed a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.”

“During the course of his speech,” he said, “another Palestinian child will undoubtedly be killed by the Israeli military in Gaza, as they have been every single hour for nearly two years.”

Meanwhile, NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch is a strong supporter of the Jewish state. When Mamdani broke with decades of mayoral tradition by snubbing the Israel Day Parade at the end of May and refusing to march in it, Tisch proudly represented the city at the event. If Mamdani calls for the Israeli leader to be taken into custody, Tisch would be tasked with carrying out the arrest.