During his mayoral campaign, Zohran Mamdani promised that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would face arrest should he enter New York City. This week, the mayor publicly acknowledged that municipal authorities lack the legal authority to carry out such an arrest and retracted his earlier pledge.

Shifting his approach, Mamdani has appealed to federal authorities to prosecute Netanyahu under an outstanding International Criminal Court warrant. He maintains his assertion that Netanyahu constitutes a war criminal, effectively transferring responsibility for enforcement from the city to the national government.