Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar dismissed incoming NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s vow to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he won’t engage in a “legal debate” with the mayor-elect, according to the New York Post.
Sa’ar told the Post that Mamdani’s repeated threats to have the NYPD arrest Netanyahu on an International Criminal Court warrant related to the Gaza war weren’t factored into the prime minister’s travel plans. “I will only say or repeat what the prime minister has said himself: He will come to New York,” Sa’ar said on Monday.
Sa’ar’s remarks echo those of Netanyahu, who told The New York Times DealBook Summit via video link last week that he will “of course” visit New York, despite the threats by the once-obscure Albany lawmaker whose rapid rise to power has stunned the political world.
Mamdani said on the campaign trail and after the election that he would seek to enforce a 2024 International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Netanyahu if he set foot in the city. The Muslim, left-wing politician, who has built his brand around harsh criticism of Israeli policies and opposition to Zionism, refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.
Legal experts say it is unclear whether a New York mayor has authority to enforce ICC warrants, and an arrest is seen as unlikely. Israel and the United States are not members of the ICC.
Mamdani, a Democratic Socialists of America member who takes office Jan. 1, 2026, pledged during his campaign to enforce the ICC warrant if Netanyahu visits the city.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who endorsed Mamdani in the NYC mayoral race, said last week the mayor lacks authority to make such an arrest. The vow could also create tension with Mamdani’s police commissioner pick, Jessica Tisch, who comes from one of the city’s prominent Jewish families and is a self-described Zionist.
Netanyahu said last week he’d be open to meeting Mamdani if the mayor-elect affirms Israel’s right to exist.
Asked by Andrew Ross Sorkin, a New York Times financial columnist and the founder of DealBook, if Israel’s longest-serving prime minister would want to talk to Mamdani, Netanyahu said, to laughter from the audience gathered at Jazz at Lincoln Center in Manhattan on Dec. 3, that he would be open to the meeting if Mamdani “changes his mind and says that we have the right to exist. That’ll be a good opening for a conversation.”
