Trump says Netanyahu won’t be arrested despite Mamdani threat

President Donald Trump said Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “will not be arrested” when he visits New York in September, pushing back on a suggestion by Mayor Zohran Mamdani that such an arrest could happen.

Mamdani has said New York City’s legal department is discussing the possibility of arresting Netanyahu when the prime minister is in the city to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani told The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast that published Saturday.

“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,” the mayor said.

Trump, in a Truth Social post on Monday, said, “Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America.”

“He is fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which recently killed 52,000 innocent protestors, and has spent the last 47 years killing American Soldiers, and others,” Trump wrote. “The only ones that should be arrested are the people that led Iran into this unprecedented SPIRAL OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION, something that should have been dealt with years ago, by previous Presidents!”

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu on Nov. 21, 2024, alleging he is “responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population” in Gaza, as well as “crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024.”

The case relates to Israel’s war on Gaza after the attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Netanyahu’s office on Sunday blasted the ICC and Mamdani.

“The ICC is a kangaroo court that has no jurisdiction over Americans or Israelis,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement on X. “Its bogus arrest warrant against Prime Minister Netanyahu was issued by a disgraced former ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan, a few days before allegations of sexual misconduct against him became public.”

“Instead of backing Khan’s criminal behaviour, Mr. Mamdani should focus on fixing the damage his policies have caused New York,” the post said. “Like Karim Khan, 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.”