New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Wednesday that the city has no authority to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, backtracking from his earlier threats. However, he reiterated his characterization of Netanyahu as a 'war criminal' and accused him of killing thousands of Palestinians.
In a statement posted Wednesday morning, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani explicitly recanted any claim of city authority to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the city has no power to do so. However, he reiterated his characterization of Netanyahu as a 'war criminal' and accused him of killing and harming thousands of Palestinians. The statement marks a further retreat from his earlier position, as he no longer calls on the federal government to act, as he did in a video posted Tuesday evening.
The development follows a rapid sequence of statements from Mamdani on Tuesday evening. The Zioneer reported that Mamdani initially defended an ICC warrant push, then quickly acknowledged he had no legal authority, then called on the federal government to arrest Netanyahu, and finally released a video calling Netanyahu a 'war criminal' and 'architect of genocide.' By Wednesday morning at 07:26 Jerusalem, Mamdani admitted the city has no authority to arrest Netanyahu, but still suggested the federal government could. In this latest statement, that qualification is dropped entirely.
The controversy began when Mamdani, a progressive Democrat, suggested he would seek ways to arrest Netanyahu if he visited New York, citing the ICC warrant. Israeli officials and U.S. lawmakers dismissed the threat, with Senator John Fetterman calling Mamdani a 'complete clown,' as The Zioneer reported on Tuesday. Prime Minister Netanyahu responded by comparing Mamdani to Imran Khan and accusing him of deflecting from his own failures, as reported on Sunday.
Mamdani continues to face criticism for his focus on Netanyahu rather than city governance. It remains unclear whether he will continue to press the federal government to act on the ICC warrant, or if this statement represents a complete retreat from his arrest push.
7 developments
- StrongIsraeli officials dismiss Mamdani's arrest threat against Netanyahu; Danon says he should be arrested
- DevelopingNetanyahu compares NYC Mayor Mamdani to Imran Khan, says he is deflecting from failures
- StrongTrump reportedly rejects NYC mayor's threat to arrest Netanyahu during UN visit
- StrongNYC Mayor Mamdani: Netanyahu is a 'war criminal,' should be in The Hague — but no new laws
Source and signal
- Internal intake