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Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday acknowledged the limitations of New York City’s legal authority when it comes to enforcing an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but noted that the federal government doesn’t face the same constraints.
“My administration has reviewed every avenue available under applicable law to determine whether New York City can execute the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant if Benjamin Netanyahu came here. It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant,” Mamdani said in a video posted to X. “The federal government, however, does, and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant.”
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During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani pledged to order Netanyahu’s arrest, and he recently told The New York Times that he was in active discussions with his office’s legal department about what the law would allow him to do.
In the wake of that interview, President Donald Trump vowed that the Israeli leader, who could visit New York City this fall for the U.N. General Assembly, would not be arrested in the U.S. in “any way, shape, or form.”
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In 2024, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and accused him of crimes against humanity, which he denied.That warrant stated that Netanyahu was “allegedly responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population” as part of Israel’s military campaign against Gaza.
The U.S. is not a party to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, and does not observe its authority. The Trump administration has also taken a more hostile posture toward the ICC, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently launching a campaign aimed at dismantling the body.
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Mamdani, who described Netanyahu as “the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people,” also detailed why the prime minister should be arrested.
“He is responsible for the killing of more than 73,000 people, for the maiming of tens of thousands of children, as those who survive undergo amputation without anesthesia. For the targeting of neonatal hospitals and maternity care centers, denying newborns even the chance to live. For the countless people he starved as he blocked food and humanitarian aid from reaching them. For the gunning down of hundreds of aid workers and journalists,” Mamdani alleged in his video on Tuesday. “And just last month, the U.N. confirmed that Palestinian children continue to be deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli armed forces more than eight months after the so-called ceasefire.”
“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,” Mamdani added.
In a statement on Sunday, Netanyahu’s office attacked the ICC, calling it a “kangaroo court,” and criticized Mamdani in response.
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“Mr. Mamdani should focus on fixing the damage his policies have caused New York,” the statement said.
It also claimed that Israel had “taken unprecedented wartime measures to minimize harm to civilians while confronting Hamas.”
