Is New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani preparing to violate international law, as well as US Federal law?

It’s well known that the candidate has promised to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which he justifies by saying that this will make New York “consistent with international law.”

The shocking truth is that doing so will actually violate the very laws and moral principles Mamdani claims to uphold.

In November of last year, in an absurd and politically motivated decision, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued international arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Some countries, such as the Netherlands, Ireland, Lithuania, Slovenia, Spain, and Canada, enthusiastically announced their intention to arrest the Israeli leaders if given the opportunity.

Others, such as Italy, Germany, Hungary, Poland, France, and Argentina have rejected the arrest warrants, while some, such as the United States, both rejected the warrants and also strongly condemned the ICC decision.

Then-US President Joe Biden condemned the warrants as “outrageous,” while current President Donald Trump went even farther, slapping sanctions on the ICC.

This consistent bipartisan reaction should not be surprising: despite its misleading name, the International Criminal “Court” is not actually a court at all, but a political body, formed in 2002 by a treaty called the Rome Statute. Even as far back as the drafting of this treaty in the late 1990s, numerous countries, including the United States and Israel, concluded (correctly) that the Rome Statute would be eventually abused for political agendas, and therefore refused to sign.

Yet America went even farther: understanding that the ICC could be a dangerous political weapon, Congress passed a bipartisan law in 2002 called the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act (ASPA). The Act not only prohibits the United States and all American government bodies from cooperating with the ICC, but also calls on Washington to defend US service members and US allies against the ICC. Therefore, any attempt by the City of New York to enforce an ICC arrest warrant would be a direct violation of Federal law, and potentially subject to Federal prosecution.

Mamdani’s misguided promise to enforce a foreign treaty that does not even include the United States, would violate not only US Federal law, but international law as well.

As non-signatories to the Rome Statute, the treaty’s terms do not apply to the United States or Israel. However, both countries are subject to a well accepted international law called the Vienna Convention, which governs diplomatic exchanges. Attempting to arrest Netanyahu in New York would violate America’s diplomatic obligations under the Vienna Convention, but would not be excused or justified by the Rome Statute, which does not apply to either country.

Law aside, arresting Israeli officials would also be a perversion of morality, as the entire case at the ICC is an absurd political circus.

In order to swindle jurisdiction over Israel despite the country never having joined the Rome Statute, the ICC unilaterally recognized a “State of Palestine,” then unilaterally declared Gaza and all of Judea/Samaria (the “West Bank”) to be Palestinian territory, and finally, gave itself jurisdiction over all events taking place within “Palestine.”

Finally, the “court” issued arrest warrants without requiring actual proof, by following a subtle legal procedure called an ex parte hearing: a hearing that is conducted in secret with only the prosecutor and the judges, and without giving the defendant the opportunity to respond, cross examine, or address the accusations in any way.

The ICC prosecutor, Karim Kahn, is currently facing multiple investigations himself, including one for sexual misconduct with his former secretary, and another for “improper conduct” with a judge in a separate war crimes case.

Legal procedure aside, the accusation against Israel itself is preposterous: that the Jewish State is intentionally depriving Gaza’s residents of food and other basic needs as a weapon of war. In truth, Israel is delivering unprecedented quantities of food, medicine, humanitarian aid, vaccination campaigns, medical services and more — a reality that is confirmed by:

• Israeli data;
• A detailed and internationally peer reviewed academic study; and by
• RealityCheck and America’s Central Intelligence Agency, in a study which reveals that Gaza has among the fastest growing populations in the world, a reality which is inconsistent with claims of depravation.

By contrast, the accusations against Israel, whether from the United Nations, NGOs, or journalists, are almost universally based on data published by Hamas itself, a terror organization which is internationally designated alongside ISIS and Al-Qaeda.

The managing body of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which is in charge of assessing global hunger, went so far as to change its own definition of “famine,” in order to make it apply to Israel.

Gaza, the territory to which Israel is providing all this aid, is the the very same territory that initiated the October 7 massacre (the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust) and which is still holding Israeli hostages in horrifying conditions over 700 days later.

So why is candidate Mamdani promoting such a bizarre, immoral, and illegal political agenda?

New Yorkers were asked about Mamdani’s calls for boycotting Israel, as well as his statements that many consider to be support for violence against Jews: over a third of New Yorkers, including almost 60% of likely Mamdani voters, said these statements will make them more likely to vote for him; over 40% declared those statements will make them “much more likely” to vote for him.

In other words, New Yorkers support Mamdani not in spite of his most disturbing, illegal, and antisemitic ideologies — but precisely because of them. Or in modern tech slang: it’s not a bug, it’s a feature: even when the feature violates US Federal law, international law, human morality, and basic common sense.

Daniel Pomerantz is the CEO of RealityCheck, an organization dedicated to deepening public conversation through robust research studies and public speaking.