World · International Law
Mamdani Concedes New York Cannot Arrest Netanyahu, and Turns to Washington
The New York mayor says his city lacks the power to enforce the ICC warrant against Israel’s leader, and calls on the federal government to join the court instead. It is a step St. Vincent and most of the Caribbean took long ago.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Tuesday that his administration does not have the legal power to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if the Israeli leader visits the city, stepping back from a pledge he had repeated for more than a year while sharpening his demand that Washington act instead.
In a video posted to X, Mamdani said his administration had reviewed every avenue available under applicable law and concluded, “it is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant.” He then pointed higher up the chain: “The federal government, however, does, and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant.” He continued to describe Netanyahu as a war criminal and, in recent remarks, as the architect of the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, characterisations that Netanyahu and his government firmly reject.
The warrant at the centre of it
The order Mamdani wants enforced was issued by the International Criminal Court in November 2024 against Netanyahu and his then defence minister, Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including intentionally directing attacks against civilians and using starvation as a method of warfare. Both men deny the allegations, which have not been tested at trial.
Tuesday’s video marks a clear shift in tone. As a candidate and then mayor-elect, Mamdani had said flatly that New York City would arrest Netanyahu, casting the city as one whose values are “in line with international law.” Only days earlier he told The New York Times his legal team was studying how the city might comply with the warrant ahead of Netanyahu’s expected visit for the United Nations General Assembly in September. The new statement reframes that effort around the hard limits of a mayor’s power.
I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant. Zohran Mamdani
Why the city’s hands are tied
The obstacles are substantial and well documented. The United States never ratified the Rome Statute and is not a member of the ICC, and federal law bars local governments from cooperating with the court while shielding visiting foreign officials. Head-of-state immunity and the 1947 UN Headquarters Agreement, which obliges Washington to admit accredited representatives to UN meetings, raise the bar further.
Critics across the political spectrum have called the original threat unworkable. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has said plainly that the mayor “does not have the power” to make such an arrest. Cardozo law professor Rebecca Ingber described it as “completely detached from reality,” and Representative Jerry Nadler, a fellow Democrat, earlier called it “simply unrealistic,” saying the city has “no jurisdiction to do such a thing.”
The jurisdiction problem
- The United States never ratified the Rome Statute and is not an ICC member.
- Federal law bars local governments from enforcing ICC warrants and protects foreign officials.
- Head-of-state immunity shields a sitting or former head of government.
- The 1947 UN Headquarters Agreement requires Washington to admit representatives to UN meetings.
The pushback from the other side was immediate. Netanyahu’s office called the ICC a “kangaroo court” and the warrant “bogus,” and urged Mamdani to focus on problems in New York. President Donald Trump declared that Netanyahu “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States.” Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said Netanyahu would attend the General Assembly regardless, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has moved to sanction ICC officials over the Gaza warrants.
A step the Caribbean took long ago
There is an irony in the standoff that reads sharply from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Mamdani’s central demand is that the United States join the ICC, a step this country and most of the Caribbean took more than two decades ago. St. Vincent and the Grenadines is a state party to the Rome Statute and has publicly backed the court, and it recognised the State of Palestine in 2011, among the first wave of CARICOM nations to do so. Palestine itself became an ICC member in 2015.
For small states, international law is not an abstraction but a shield, often the main protection a nation of roughly 110,000 people has against the will of far larger powers. That is part of why the region has invested so consistently in courts, treaties and the machinery of multilateralism. Watching the mayor of one of the world’s most powerful cities strain against the limits of a system his own country declined to join is a reminder of how differently international justice can look from Kingstown than from Washington. Whether Netanyahu is ever arrested anywhere, the argument Mamdani has reopened is one the Caribbean settled long ago.
This article reports on an active and contested political and legal dispute. The ICC’s charges against Benjamin Netanyahu are allegations that have not been tested at trial, and the characterisations quoted here are attributed to the people who made them, not the views of Vincypowa News.