Democrats Demand Netanyahu's Arrest as Israeli PM Heads to Washington

A Bold Demand Ahead of a High-Stakes Visit

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Friday echoed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's call for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ahead of the foreign leader's visit to the U.S. The timing was deliberate and provocative — Netanyahu was heading to Washington for a meeting with President Trump, and two prominent Democrats wanted the world to know they thought he should be in handcuffs, not the Oval Office.

"The American president should arrest Netanyahu or Russian President Vladimir Putin in accordance with international law," Khanna told a MeidasTouch reporter in a hallway interview on Capitol Hill, adding, "America needs to cooperate with the ICC. It's a matter of human rights, and it's a matter of a rules-based international order." The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in 2024, finding reasonable grounds to believe he bears criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Legal Reality Behind the Rhetoric

Khanna cited the ICC's 2024 warrant for alleged war crimes during the conflict in Gaza as the basis for his argument that Trump should arrest the Israeli leader, who was scheduled to visit the White House. Khanna didn't let up, saying, "This is about accountability. 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."

But the calls run headlong into some hard legal walls. New York City lacks the independent power to act on ICC warrants, and the U.S. is not a member of the ICC. The United Nations also maintains diplomatic protection for leaders visiting its New York headquarters. President Trump pushed back forcefully, saying on Truth Social that Netanyahu "will not be arrested, in any way, shape or form, while in the United States of America." Mayor Mamdani himself conceded that his administration does not have the legal authority to arrest Netanyahu, backing away from a pledge he had repeated since his mayoral campaign.

Khanna's Personal History With Israel

Khanna's call to arrest Netanyahu came nearly a week after his West Bank detention, during which he accused Israeli settlers and the IDF of briefly holding him during a visit to a small Palestinian village. Khanna had said he was detained by settlers and the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank and released only after calls to the American Embassy in Jerusalem. As the congressman visited a Palestinian village that had been abandoned after settler attacks, masked men with guns stopped his group and refused to let them leave. The IDF disputed Khanna's account of the incident.

Khanna told The New York Times afterward, "Free advice to the Israelis: It's not a good idea to detain long-shot presidential candidates," adding that the experience would inform his potential 2028 campaign. The remark underscored how deeply personal and politically charged his stance on Israel has become.

A Visit Shadowed by Tension

Netanyahu met with President Trump at the White House on Tuesday, July 29 — a visit that came at a time when tensions had mounted between the two leaders over the handling of the war with Iran. Netanyahu also attended the funeral service for Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a staunch Republican ally of Israel. Khanna conceded that the Trump administration would not pursue an arrest, saying, "He's not a law-and-order president, and he doesn't really care about human rights."

The episode illustrates a widening fault line inside American politics over U.S.-Israel relations. Khanna and Mamdani's calls may be legally unenforceable, but they signal something larger — a growing progressive willingness to frame the Gaza war not as a foreign policy debate, but as a criminal justice issue. Whether that framing gains traction beyond the left flank of the Democratic Party may well shape the contours of the 2028 presidential race.