Khanna echoes Mamdani’s calls for Netanyahu arrest

House Khanna echoes Mamdani’s calls for Netanyahu arrest Comments: by Sarah Davis - 07/25/26 8:13 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Sarah Davis - 07/25/26 8:13 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Friday echoed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s (D) call for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ahead of the foreign leader’s visit to the U.S. next week.

“The American president should arrest Netanyahu or [Russian President Vladimir] Putin in accordance with international law,” Khanna told MeidasTouch reporter Pablo Manriquez in a hallway interview on Capitol Hill.

“Full stop. America needs to cooperate with the ICC,” the Democratic lawmaker continued, referring to the International Criminal Court. “It’s a matter of human rights, and it’s a matter of a rules-based international order and he should order the marshals to arrest someone if they come to our jurisdiction.”

The international body issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli head of state in 2024, accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to Israel’s actions during its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Khanna’s call comes weeks after the lawmaker said he was briefly detained by Israeli settlers and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in the West Bank during a visit to a small Palestinian village. The California Democrat, who is openly weighing a presidential run in 2028, told The New York Times after the incident that this experience would inform his potential campaign.

“Free advice to the Israelis: It’s not a good idea to detain long-shot presidential candidates,” he told the Times. “Not how you’re going to build good will with the next American president, whoever that is.”

Next week, Netanyahu will visit Washington, D.C., where he will meet with President Trump for their first in-person discussion since the U.S. and Israel launched joint attacks on Iran in late February. He will also attend the funeral for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a staunch advocate for Israel and ally to Netanyahu.

Mamdani told The New York Times last week that he was in active conversation with the New York City law enforcement authorities about whether he could arrest Netanyahu when he made his expected visit to the city for the United Nations General Assembly in the fall.

The mayor later said he does not have the legal authority to arrest the prime minister, but he noted that federal authorities do have this power.

He has also been an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights and has called Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide.”

“As I’ve said, I agree with the ICC that Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested and tried for his crimes, as I do for anyone else charged by the ICC,” the mayor said video shared on social media earlier this week. Mamdani noted that his administration had examined all legal options for arrest.

Trump responded to the mayor’s call for Netanyahu’s arrest earlier this week, saying the Israeli prime minister “will not be arrested” in the U.S.

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

When asked about the chances of the president agreeing to detain the Israeli leader, Khanna acknowledged it was unlikely.

“He’s not a law-and-order president, and he doesn’t really care about human rights or international law,” Khanna told Manriquez on Friday. “It’s embarrassing to the United States and to the world community… It’s simple international law.”

The lawmaker added that the move would give Trump some power after Netanyahu defied him by continuing to strike Lebanon despite a ceasefire agreement.

“This is about accountability,” he said. “You can’t just kill women and children, have an ICC arrest warrant, and then walk into the United States of America and think nothing is gonna happen to you. If you come to our jurisdiction, America is a country that’s gonna enforce international law.”