How Mayor Mamdani gets it wrong on international law and Israel

International law is a major casualty of the last few years of reporting from the Middle East.The abuse, inversion, misrepresentation and weaponization of international legal terms and concepts has been a cornerstone of the storm of anti-Zionist propaganda engulfing much of the media coverage from the region.

This increasing trend undermines real international law and threatens the United States and the wider Free World, as these false representations of international law are increasingly deployed against Western interests more broadly.One of the most prominent spreaders of this misinformation has been the Mayor of New York.From alleging that synagogues were promoting activities “in violation of international law,” to threatening to arrest the Prime Minister of Israel, to arguing that the US is “subsidizing a genocide,” Zohran Mamdani is a frequent offender and a key driver of this worrying phenomenon.The impact on New York’s Jewish community has been palpable.

But the broader effect of these increasingly widespread misconceptions of international law should not be underestimated.These buzzwords are intended to stymie debate, project a false narrative and ultimately target the West.

It is high time that Mamdani was called out on his falsehoods.The Mayor has repeatedly described Israel as an “occupying” power, engaged in an “unlawful occupation” and supported claims that Israeli settlements are “illegal under international law.” All of these claims misapply fundamental principles of international law to the territory of the State of Israel, the borders of which arise from the universally applied customary rule of Uti Possidetis Juris, “as you possess under the law.”This rule has applied to the formation of the borders of emerging states in order to maintain stability and certainty, in a decolonization context, across South America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.It is a default rule which provides that the existing admi...