NEW YORK, United States: Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Tuesday that New York City cannot enforce the ICC arrest warrant against Netanyahu if the Israeli prime minister visits.
Mamdani said his administration reviewed the legal options available to the city before concluding that it lacked the required authority. He urged the federal government to join the International Criminal Court and execute the warrant.
The mayor called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal” and accused him of responsibility for mass civilian suffering in Gaza. Those remarks reflect Mamdani’s position and are not a judicial finding of genocide.
Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. pic.twitter.com/YRezmW6YVx
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) July 22, 2026The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu on November 21, 2024. The court said judges found reasonable grounds to suspect responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including starvation as a method of warfare, murder, persecution and other inhumane acts. Netanyahu and Israeli officials reject the allegations.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Netanyahu would not be arrested on American soil. The United States is not a party to the ICC’s Rome Statute, and the Trump administration has rejected the court’s jurisdiction over Israeli officials.
Read: Trump Rules Out Netanyahu Arrest During Any US Visit
The dispute comes before the United Nations General Assembly’s 2026 high-level week in New York, scheduled for September 22–28. Netanyahu’s office has dismissed the ICC as a “kangaroo court” and rejected Mamdani’s position.
