Mamdani promised to arrest Netanyahu if he came to New York. Here’s why he can’t.

President Donald Trump said on Monday that Netanyahu would not be arrested “in any way, shape, or form” in the US.

Netanyahu is expected to attend the UN General Assembly meeting this September. He had last visited New York for the same meeting even as the spectre of the ICC warrant hung over him.

The ICC warrant against Netanyahu

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued its warrant against Netanyahu in November 2024, accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza after the October 7 attack.

The court has no police force of its own and relies on member states to make arrests. Since neither the US nor Israel has joined the ICC, the warrant carries no automatic force within the US. That leaves local officials without a direct legal basis to act on it.

The ICC found reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu bore criminal responsibility for the war crimes of using starvation as a method of warfare and directing attacks on civilians in Gaza between 8 October 2023 and 20 May 2024. It also charged Netanyahu with crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts during this period.

Former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant was charged with the same offences in the same ruling.

What Mamdani actually promised

Mamdani first raised the idea while still a state assemblyman running for mayor.

In a December 2024 interview with journalist Mehdi Hasan, he was asked directly whether “Mayor Mamdani” would welcome Netanyahu to the city. He replied that New York City would arrest Netanyahu because the city’s actions should align with its values regarding international law. In response to the contention about the US not being an ICC signatory, Mamdani said it was time to show the leadership that is missing from the federal government.

He repeated the pledge throughout the campaign, and after winning office, he told The New York Times in September 2025 that arresting Netanyahu was something he “intended to fulfil”, and that he would order the NYPD to act the moment Netanyahu landed.

Fellow Democrats were sceptical of this promise, with New York Governor Kathy Hochul saying that the mayor does not have the power to do this. State assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein went further, asking New York attorney general Letitia James to examine whether Mamdani had broken any law simply by threatening the arrest.

Syracuse law professor Cora True-Frost told The Telegraph in December 2025 that Mamdani’s pledge was “politically very significant” but doubted it could ever be fulfilled. Foreign affairs, she said, are the federal government’s exclusive domain, and Washington would almost certainly invoke head-of-state immunity to shield Netanyahu.

Head-of-state immunity is a well-established principle of customary international law that provides immunity from prosecution in the courts of other countries for sitting heads of state and government, whether or not the allegations are criminal, as long as the person is in office.

She added that if Netanyahu came specifically to the UN, the headquarters agreement protecting visiting diplomats would further constrain the mayor.

Powers of the New York mayor

A New York mayor runs the city’s agencies, including the police department. It can direct the NYPD on ordinary policing within city and state law. The mayor’s office appoints and removes commissioners in dozens of city agencies, controls the city’s budget process, and runs the public school system as its chancellor’s appointer.

Foreign affairs, however, sit entirely outside that. A Congressional Research Service report says that in matters of foreign relations, courts have described “state lines” as effectively disappearing, since that power belongs solely to the federal government. Cities and states keep control over ordinary local policing and crime within their borders, but none at all over treaties, diplomacy, or foreign warrants.

In practice, cities and states aren’t entirely shut out of the world stage, with many keeping trade offices abroad. In the wake of Russia’s war with Ukraine, several cities — including London, Paris and Washington DC — imposed sanctions and froze assets linked to Russia.

A separate federal law, the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act of 2002, further bars local police from cooperating with ICC arrest efforts. That makes a city-led arrest effort legally unavailable.

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz has separately argued that the UN headquarters agreement itself shields visiting leaders attending the General Assembly.

The author is an intern with The Indian Express