New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has renewed debate over international law after saying he would consider having Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if the Israeli leader visited New York for the United Nations General Assembly in September.
Mamdani has argued that the city should not ignore the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu related to crimes against humanity towards Palestinians in Gaza.
Netanyahu has denied the allegations, and Israel rejects the ICC’s jurisdiction.
Legal experts note that a New York City mayor has no independent authority to arrest a foreign head of government based on an ICC warrant. Decisions involving international arrest warrants would fall to federal authorities and other agencies with appropriate jurisdiction, not the mayor’s office or the NYPD acting on a mayor’s directive alone.
The United States is also not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court, and therefore is not legally obligated under that treaty to execute ICC arrest warrants.
Any attempt to detain a visiting foreign leader would also involve complex questions of federal authority, diplomatic immunity, and U.S. foreign policy.
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