New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is examining whether he has the authority to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if the Israeli Prime Minister comes to the UN General Assembly in September, as expected.

Mamdani is in “active discussions” with New York City’s legal department about the matter and is discussing it with his own administration, the mayor himself said in an interview with The New York Times during the past week.

“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani told Lulu Garcia-Navarro this week on “The Interview”, a programme from The New York Times, referring to the seat of the International Court of Justice.

“He is a war criminal who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court,” Mamdani added. “And you will find that this is a view shared by many, solely because of what his actions have led to over the course of these many years.”

The Israeli Prime Minister accuses Mamdani of supporting Hamas:

“Who does he defend? Hamas, which openly calls for the massacre of every Jew on earth, which carried out the terrible massacre, the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” Netanyahu said.

He also says that Mamdani “does not care” that “those who hate the Jews and Israel ultimately hate America”.

“And in fact, I believe that, deep down, he hates America,” Netanyahu adds.

Mamdani, however, has an explanation problem: His wife, Rama Duwaji, sympathises with Hamas.

Duwaji has been criticised for some of her past activity on social media, including liking a post that praised Hamas’ attack on Israel.

“She is her own person,” Mamdani said. “She is an incredible artist, and yet so much of how she relates to the world today is viewed through the lens of her being my wife.”

The mayor, who belongs to the same branch within Shia Islam as the regime in Iran, believes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would be a good Democratic presidential candidate in 2028.

Mamdani’s views on Israel are no longer regarded as extreme among Democrats, The New York Times comments.