Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested on US soil, President Donald Trump will explained Monday, an assurance that highlighted a growing gap between international criminal law on paper and its enforcement in practice, as Washington ramps up its campaign against the court seeking his arrest.
“Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested in any way while in the United States of America,” Trump wrote on social media, adding that Netanyahu was fighting Iran and that “the only ones who should be arrested” were Iranian leaders.
The statement followed remarks by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who said in a interview released on Saturday that the city’s legal department was considering its options before September, when Netanyahu normally travels to New York for high-level meetings of the U.N. General Assembly.
“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague. He is a war criminal who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court. And you will find that this is an opinion held by many simply because of what his actions have done in recent years,” he said in an interview with The New York Times Magazine.
Mamdani, who took office in January, campaigned with the promise that Netanyahu would be arrested by the police if he entered the city.
The International Criminal Court has issued Arrest warrants in November 2024 for Netanyahu and his then Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza War. Israel rejects the court’s jurisdiction and denies committing war crimes. On Sunday, the Prime Minister’s Office called the arrest warrant was “fake” and the court was a “kangaroo court”.
ICC member states have one Obligation to arrest and hand over suspects to court. But despite its key role in shaping the court, the United States is not a member state. Then-President Bill Clinton signed the court’s founding document Roman Statutein the final days of his term in 2000, but never submitted it to the Senate. In 2002, when the treaty went into effect and the court opened, President George W. Bush’s administration began notified The United Nations said the U.S. had no intention of becoming a party to the treaty, a move the White House said relieved Washington of any residual obligation to honor an agreement it signed. This year, Congress passed the American Service-Members’ Protection Act, which largely prohibited U.S. cooperation with the court.
Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute. The ICC can issue an arrest warrant for a national of a non-member State, if the alleged genocide, crime against humanity or war crime was committed after July 1, 2002 in the territory of a State Party or a State that has accepted the jurisdiction of the court, or if the UN Security Council refers the situation to the Prosecutor in accordance with Chapter VII. The Netanyahu arrest warrant is based on conduct on Palestinian territory and not on Israel’s membership.
Indeed, Trump’s statement reaffirms longstanding U.S. policy, but it comes amid a broader attack on the court’s authority that gives new force to the old policy.
The UN’s presence in the city does not give New York any additional authority. The 1947 Seating agreement requires U.S. authorities not to impede delegates’ travel to the UN district and prohibits local officials from entering the site for official business without the approval of the Secretary-General. But the district is not foreign territory. US law applies there. Customary international law grants sitting heads of government personal immunity from prosecution abroad, a principle upheld by the International Court of Justice in a Judgment from 2002 with the participation of an incumbent foreign minister. U.S. courts defer heavily to the executive branch in such matters. Foreign policy is a federal power, and harassment of foreign officials is a federal crime. US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz cited these points on Saturday. vocation Mamdani’s position is “pure political theater”.
Mamdani did not say what legal theory the city might rely on. In the weekend interview, he said: “I will follow the laws that we have here in New York City because I believe it is important as a leader who leads our city to follow the laws…Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, we will do that, but we will not write our own laws for that purpose.”
The exchange follows you notice A week earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlined what the State Department called a whole-of-government campaign to dismantle the ICC, saying Washington would dismantle the court “brick by brick” if necessary. The plan includes sanctions, visa suspensions and pressure on allies to withdraw.
