Mamdani Says NYC Can’t Enforce ICC Warrant, Urges US Action

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the city lacks independent legal authority to enforce the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urged the federal government to act.

Mamdani outlined the legal review in a video statement posted July 22 to the mayor’s account on X.

He said his administration reviewed “every avenue available under applicable law” to determine whether the city could enforce the warrant if Netanyahu came to New York. It could not, he said.

The federal government has that authority, Mamdani said, and he urged it to “join the ICC and execute this warrant.”

He said Netanyahu was “not welcome in New York City,” and that the same applied to “any other war criminal at large.”

Mamdani called Netanyahu “a war criminal” and “the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people.”

He accused Netanyahu of responsibility for killing more than 73,000 people and for maiming tens of thousands of children. He also accused him of targeting neonatal hospitals and maternity care centers, blocking food and humanitarian aid, and killing hundreds of aid workers and journalists.

Mamdani said surviving children were undergoing amputations without anesthesia. He did not identify a source for the casualty figures.

The statement did not include responses from Netanyahu, the Israeli government or the U.S. government.

Mamdani also said the United Nations confirmed last month that Israeli armed forces continued deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children, more than eight months after what he called the “so-called ceasefire.” He did not identify the finding.

Americans pay “for the bombs that do the killing,” he said.

He cited the ICC warrant in saying Netanyahu should appear before a court of law.

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. — Zohran Mamdani, New York City mayor

New York City cannot end what he described as genocide on its own, Mamdani said. He pledged to examine every available tool to defend “the humanity and dignity of all people,” and said the city could decide whether its silence became “another weapon.”