President Donald Trump has assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of his safety from arrest within the United States. This statement followed remarks by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who suggested he might pursue legal actions against Netanyahu.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu in 2024, alleging he employed starvation as a warfare tactic and intentionally targeted civilians in Gaza. Israel has strongly rebutted these war crimes accusations.
According to a report in the New York Times, Mamdani revealed that the city’s legal team is actively examining possibilities to detain Netanyahu if he visits New York for the UN General Assembly in September.
“I believe Prime Minister Netanyahu should be in The Hague as he has been charged by the International Criminal Court,” Mamdani expressed.
“However, I commit to adhering to New York City’s laws, as I believe in the significance of lawfulness for leaders governing our city,” he added.
He said he would use existing laws, not create new ones, to potentially enforce the ICC warrant.
“Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we will do, but we won’t be writing our own laws to that end.”
On Tuesday, Trump said the Israeli prime minister would not be arrested in the US, while not addressing Mamdani’s comments directly.
“Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America,” he said in a post on his Truth Social platform, adding that Netanyahu was assisting in the US’ war against Iran.
“The only ones that should be arrested are the people that led Iran into this unprecedented SPIRAL OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION.”
Netanyahu’s office earlier responded to Mamdani’s comments, describing the warrant as “bogus” and the actions of the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan as “criminal”. Khan is facing sexual misconduct allegations that he denies.
“The ICC is a kangaroo court that has no jurisdiction over Americans or Israelis,” the office posted.
“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.”
Mamdani also came under attack by fellow US politicians, including Democrat senator for Pennsylvania John Fetterman, who said the mayor had “no way” to arrest Netanyahu, and echoed the Israeli leader’s assertion that the US was not part of the court.
The House Republican Conference also issued a statement in support of Netanyahu, saying: “Mamdani is threatening to arrest the head of one of our closest allies. He should stop politicizing local law enforcement and interfering with US foreign policy and instead focus on rising rent and housing prices and antisemitism in NYC.”
The US and Israel, unlike Australia and more than 100 other nations, are not state parties to the Rome Statute, which founded the court in 2002. The ICC has international jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Experts have previously told SBS News it’s unlikely that Netanyahu will be arrested at all, as long as he doesn’t travel to any of the 124 member countries of the ICC.
While Australia has not issued a firm indication whether it would comply with the warrant, some countries like the Netherlands have indicated he would be arrested if he set foot in Holland.
Why has the US been critical of the ICC?
While the US signed the Rome Statute, it never formally ratified it due to concerns it could expose US soldiers and officials to prosecution.
Last year, Trump issued sanctions against Khan and eight of the court’s judges, including financial restrictions and travel bans, saying its arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his former defence chief Yoav Gallant “set a dangerous precedent”, and “endangered” US soldiers “by exposing them to harassment, abuse, and possible arrest”.
Last week, the Trump administration launched a campaign to dismantle the court, by urging foreign nations to withdraw from the ICC through direct lobbying of foreign leaders and “increase scrutiny of nations that refuse to reject the ICC’s false authority while relying on US assistance”.
According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the extraordinary move constituted the US’ “first real effort to destroy an existing multilateral institution”.
“By contrast, the administration’s campaign to dismantle the ICC is a campaign of pure destruction, a coercive attempt to impose the United States’s will on the rest of the world,” senior fellow Stewart Patrick wrote in a recent briefing.