NY mayor says still mulling Netanyahu arrest during UN meet
New York (AFP) – New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is in talks over whether to try to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an upcoming UN summit, he said in an interview published Saturday -- prompting a sharp rebuke from Netanyahu's camp.
"I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague," Mamdani told The New York Times. "He's a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court."
The leftist Mamdani, who has called Israel an "apartheid regime," added: "That is an opinion that is held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these last many years."
Mamdani admitted he was not sure if he has the power to order the New York Police Department to detain a foreign leader but is discussing the matter with the city's legal team.
"Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that's what we will do," he said.
The UN General Assembly, a major gathering of world leaders, takes place in September at UN headquarters in New York.
Mamdani in the past has vowed to send the NYPD to enforce arrest warrants against leaders wanted by the International Criminal Court, including Netanyahu or Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Hague-based ICC said in 2024 that it had reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu was responsible for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity related to Israel's offensive in Gaza following the unprecedented [...] attack by Hamas.
Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, quickly called out Mamdani.
"Instead of focusing on his responsibilities as mayor and confronting the rising wave of antisemitism in his city, he has chosen to incite hostility and generate headlines by attacking the State of Israel," Danon wrote on X.
"It will not change a thing. Israeli Prime Minister @netanyahu will come to New York, address the United Nations General Assembly with pride, and stand before the world to state Israel's truth and its unwavering right to defend its citizens," he said.
"And if anyone should be arrested, it is @NYCMayor Zohran Mamdani."
Netanyahu has accused Mamdani of supporting Hamas, saying on a recent New York radio show: "I think, secretly, he hates America."
123 replies
Oh please do it. Imagine being able to arrest Hitler when everyone knew he's not just invading but genociding. Should have arrested Putin in Anchorage, too.
Noticed the Israeli diplomat didn’t deny anything.
He just screamed about antisemitism.
Antisemites morphed from being someone that hates Jews to someone Jews hate.
Israel doesn't represent the Jewish community
Your statement is ironically antisemitic
Israel represents "a" Jewish community, just not the "whole" Jewish community. And I an anti-religion, not just Judaism. I don't care what bucket that puts me in.
Anti-zionistm morphed into antisemitism when anti-zionists started protesting at their local synagogues.
Mamdani being the mayor of a city with a large Jewish population is well aware of the rise in antisemitism and the connection to anti-zionism. It's just politically expedient for him to look the other way and not talk about the issue.
Lol. The protests that I'm aware of were at synagogues who were explicitly doing things to support the Zionist state and their colonial/invasion efforts. Even still, that's one of the dumbest arguments you could make. Does protesting outside of a bank mean you hate everyone who uses a bank? Does protesting outside of a state hall mean you hate everyone who uses the government apparatus?
Maybe the Zionist state of Israel should stop using racism as a shield to defend their actions of commiting a genocide and stealing land, and people would actually listen! Have you heard the story of the boy who cried wolf? Eventually people realize that you're just making shit up, and they shouldn't listen to you. If you want some credibility, come up with a better argument and stop the bullshit. Let your bosses know. Maybe they can make the change and actually help you, instead of making everyone hate you.
Here's an article about passing a law to create a buffer zone around synogugues to prevent anti-zionist from doing antisemitc shit:
https://apnews.com/article/new-york-protest-buffer-zones-worship-houses-496d550e0c97aa2b250e7e36d445239d
Note:
Mamdani knows this shit is going on, and is just quietly putting up perimeters to keep the antisemitism from getting out of hand. He's not speaking out about antisemitism in New York, because he'd lose support from his "anti-zionist" base because a lot of them are the ones actually doing the antisemitic shit.
There is nothing wrong in protesting in front of a synagogue, a church, a mosque or a town hall.
Freedom of speech is for everyone.
Freedom of religion is also for everyone. It's a distinctly American thing to express freedom by taking away another's freedoms.
Ah, yes, because they managed to prevent these people from practicing their religion by stsnding outside, waving signs around, and publicly stating opposition to genocide, loudly and repeatedly.
It is when you are blaming the people in the Synagogue for war crimes. Leave the Jewish community out of this as they are completely innocent and do not have Amy control or influence on the actions of Israel.
They protested near synagogues hosting event selling land where palestinians was illegally expulsed from their land. Fuck you and you whole family
You have a point, no need to fuck everyone. Even if you are very horny. Please ask for consent. 🙏
Fuck you too. I will insult scums who justify genocide and colonialism all I want
I don't have precise numbers, but from what I see in social media, mainstream media and Jewish people I know, an alarmingly large number of this community stand behind Israel's actions.
Protesting peacefully in front of a synagogue seems like a good way to reach the target audience.
Hasbara bot spotted
Yeah I believe they had all their comments removed in a different thread where they spouted the same nonsense.
The synaguoges hosted illegal and immoral activities, naturally protesters will protest there. Fuck off zionazi
There it is. You think Jews practicing their religion equates to immoral activities. Your words prove "anti-zionism" is just another word for antisemitism.
Selling illegal land in synagogues is practicing their religion? Fuck off you scum. The false accusation of antisemitism no longer work
If you hate all zionists and you're assumimg all Jews are zionists, then you hate all Jews and are therefore an antiemite.
Do I need to draw a Venn diagram?
You obviously did not read/listen what the other said, or voluntarily discarded their point without looking into it/asking for sources, therefore you have earned one (1) downvote.
It is you who assume every jews is a Zionists and claim selling colonized land in synagogues is jews practicing their religion. The protests you claim that was organized to target all jews for their Jewishness near synagogues has jews in them
Fuck all of these evil people. I don't care what religion they are, if they commit and defend genocide then they deserve to be in prison for the rest of their lives.
I can see where this might not be a legal possibility. While it may be legal for NYPD to arrest a foreign national based on an ICC warrant, it would arguably be the United States - not New York City - that is authorized to hand such a prisoner over to ICC, because that is an international matter.
Or, since the warrant is from outside the US, the feds might even need to be involved in the arrest.
This is true. The US is not a member of the ICC and doesn't recognize its authority. If Mamdani tried to arrest Netanyahu, he may be brought up on federal charges.
is actively trying to dismantle it now and has the Hague Invasion act
https://www.hrw.org/news/2002/08/03/us-hague-invasion-act-becomes-law
What's the charge?
He would be charged for violating the American Service-Members' Protection Act, which grants US servicemen and allies with diplomatic immunity against ICC charges. Under that law it is illegal for any American to assist the International Court against any fellow Americans or their allies. There's also a clause that states, that if a US citizen or ally is brought to the Hague for trial...the US military will invade the Netherlands in order to extricate those individuals
That's right. The US has literally passed a law prohibiting the prosecution of US military members and their allies for war crimes. How fucked up is that?
It's insane to me what other countries will tolerate out of the U.S. like, you'd expect most states around the world would recognize it as the biggest threat to the world on earth. China? Russia? Nothing compared to the u.s. and it's not a new issue either.
So they have a law to forbid their allies from being charged of war crimes and also to allow the invasion of a country
Insane since the Netherlands are part of NATO, and therefore an ally.
Enjoying a succulent dinner.
This man knows his judo
There was a bunch of discussion about why the government didn't do something similar when ?Gaddafi? came to UN meetings, and it was that there's an agreement of some kind (treaty? law? UN charter?) that means people coming to New York for UN meetings cannot be arrested. Of course, this administration and it's supporters have shown absolutely no regard for any of those to date - but you can bet they'll be screeching from the rooftops if Mamdani tries to arrest Netanyahu.
Yes, I'm pretty sure that the deal with the Un being in NYC means exactly that.
They just have to put him on a boat in international water. That's, what, 30 minutes from NYC?
Oh yeah that would work. Sail out, set him in a dinghy, sail away while ICC picks him up.
NYPD has much better boats then a dinghy, but yes
No need to waste a better boat.
Never stops Trump from doing what he wants. You can’t play by the rules when nobody else is.
It is not legal. The US doesn't recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC and is not party to the Rome Statute. You can't arrest someone with a warrant in a court that has no jurisdiction.
...soooo... ...what about what the US did to the Venezuelan President...?
I mean in my opinion the US is an illegitimate rogue criminal state and everyone in its government should be put to death. The state should be dissolved and the land should be returned to its remaining indigenous populations.
Im not going to support or condemn this, i think this could be a good topic of conversation, but really quick question: what happens to everyone else who lives there in that scenario?
What happened to the Rhodesians?
They would either stay there and live under the governments that were established or go back to where they came from.
From a very basic google sesrch, Rhodesia seems to have been conquered by britain in roughly 1923, then regained independence in 1979/1980. That is about 57 years. The US has been around for 250, longer if you count the colonies preceeding it. They arent really at the point where they can just "go back". Also "go back to where they came from" okay. So, the guy born and raised in the middle of... Lets say, Vermont. His father and mother were both born in the US. Their parents were born in the US. Their parents were born in Russia, China, and Spain. Where does he go? None of these countries have a language he can speak, a culture that he is familiar with, a similar climate, or any real connection to him. Additionally, i agree that the USA should probably back off from attacking other countries, and that they can be a but stuck in the past on a few topics... But socialism doesnt work at scale. It either becomes capitalism with slightly more restrictions on buisnesses, (which is good, but is still capitalism), or it causes millions to starve to death. (Similar to Communism). (Not the point of the conversation, though)
Oooh you're a moron. I'm going to block you because you have worthless opinions I never want to read.
You can, that's what extradition is for.
Extradition is a legal process that would require US to the recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, be party to the Rome statute and sign an extradition treaty with them. You can't extradite someone to a place you don't recognize as having authority.
It's not the only path, if Interpol were to issue an arrest warrant for the ICC (which they did for different cases before) extraditing him from the US would be legal regardless of the Rome statute.
He should invite interpol to the conference and let them do it
Just do it. Arrest him and immediately put him on a plane to the Netherlands. Let the ICC deal with him.
Just say you were helping ICE deport a violent individual with a warrant. Force the fascists to justify being against that since that's exactly what they've been claiming ICE is doing, and bypassing the courts to do so.
honestly, he could frame it to trump as a way to skapegoat the whole iran war onto him and give donald an out. it wouldn't fool anyone with a iq above room temperature but it would def work on MAGAs. but something tells my netanyankydoodle has something on donald thats worse then just him being friends with epstine.
Epstein and Maxwell were both mossad. Bibi has the FULL, UNREDACTED LIST.
he likely has more then a list, he likely has videos, and even trump knows a picture is worth a thousand words.
At this point Donald and all his cronies that voted and supported this genocide should also rot in prison.
Ok, who gonna put them there tho...
Citizens with balls! Imagine a massive US militia surrounding the UN building and taking these scumbags to Rikers island. I mean they always saying this is the reason we need armed citizens and we pay the price with daily school shootings. At least do something good with it.
Hello, Malicious compliance!
While The US is not a signatory to the ICC, it IS in an extradition treaty with Interpol, and THEY DO have the jurisdiction to act on ICC warrants.
Just a little nugget.
Doesn't that only apply to the federal government?
Nobody cares about rules in the US anymore, including the federal government.
If interpol doesn't get him I hope a wild drone suddenly appears
Amazing. I hope zohran does it.
Lol. Projection, perhaps.
So Israel and its leaders can do whatever they want, and anyone who calls them out on it is automatically "inciting anti-semitism?"
I'm not sure that's how this works, pal.
That’s exactly how it works to everyone licking Israel boots. They will pull the race/hate speech card every time. They use it as a shield to shift blame.
ftfy
Bootlicker.
Did you just learn about pissraeli zionists?
He will get murdered if he arrests Netanyahu
The US doesn't recognize the ICC, is not party to the Rome Statute and it is not legal to enforce their warrants there. This is why he is being coy about it. People want him (Mamdani) to do something that is illegal for him to do in the US and will get him murdered.
I thought like you, remember what happened to his corruption's case judge Benny Sagi
So many bibi bots on here with stupid talking points. Please arrest this POS so he can rot in a prison for his crimes against humanity. If this terrorist bibi does it to the Palestinians what makes you think he wouldn't do it to you? I already like Zohran but if he did this he should run for president and take away all of Israel aid cause no one else has the balls to do it and I would fully support Zohran for a Presidential run!
Announcing it loudly, so Bibi can avoid the meeting. Why...
Forcing Netanyahu to stay home without the potential complications of actually arresting him I suppose.
Just do it following the arrest warrant by ICC.
Afair the USA doesn't recognize the ICC.
But as they don't follow an awful lot of their own laws, they could follow some foreign ones for a change ;)
Everything is fair game on world leaders since the Trump US kidnapped Maduro and bombed the shit out of Iran's and a girls school at the same time
If any local police department were capable of arresting a world leader it would be the NYPD. For decades the NYPD has operated more like an intelligence agency than a police department, even making arrests outside the country. I don't consider that to be a good thing (in my opinion what the NYPD has been allowed to become is criminal), but it sure makes the suggestion that they might be used to arrest the Prime Minister of a foreign country a lot more plausible.
Wow, this is a really shitty article.
Cold you not find one that calls the genocide a genocide? And doesn't give a platform to wanted war criminals?
Can he not just invite interpol to do it?
Interpol has no police jurisdiction anywhere in the world meaning its agents cannot arrest or investigate suspects. Instead, Interpol solely facilitates communication and data-sharing among the local police forces. The US does not recognize the ICC and is not party to the Rome statute so the local police in the US can not enforce ICC warrants.
You mean Lupin III lied to me?
A slight correction, but a necessary one: I would hope that, given what is happening already in the US, we would understand that "can not" is objectively incorrect when it comes to government actions. Just because something is illegal doesn't mean it can't happen, and nothing is illegal if the systems of government fail to hold the enforcers of the law accountable for their own breaches thereof.
FTFY. The only way to determine if they "can not" do something is to try it.
Invite a foreign group in the name of whom?
All he has to do is invite interpol to the UN assembly and give them authority to make arrests in his city. Let them handle the rest. I wouldn't trust NYPD with the task anyway...
Just do it and face the legal consequences later.
Do it!
Unfortunately to pull this off (even ignoring legality matters) would have to literally put the UN and Isreal Embassy under siege. I highly doubt the NYPD has that capacity.
That being said I don't think the NYPD has legal mandatory obligations to protect the locations from crowds mass protesting said locations.
Arrest or summary execution? Decisions decisions...
He's gonna tell the israel's truth. Not truth, israel's truth. Social media attackers are openly supporting genocide with lies and petty attacks.
Wut. Just arrest him, and ask questions later.
I'm not sure i'd take the leader of a foreign country's word over the mayor of the native country.
Just in general, but an appeal to mythos seems bold.
Maybe it's just me.
The fascist regime will never let him do it. How I would love to see that bastard in cuffs.
Donald would simply intervene and free him, and then do something nasty to New York as revenge.
Like claiming to be from there?
I'd looove to see the US try to invade the Hague, and the economic collapse that would follow from all of Europe issuing sanctions against the US.
We should also rapidly sell off our US bonds
Sound similar to when trump said he would arrest some people but never actually did. It's good that he's calling out netanyahu for being a criminal and talking about arresting him but that's something the majority of US population agrees on. Look at politicians actions and not at what they say, their job is to lie to the public.
How could he possibly get that done? I’d certainly love to see it! I’d be afraid for my safety if I were him. The zionists will not hesitate to show their strength and prowess against anyone they deem a threat to their uncle Hitler.
But the measure of a man like Mamdani is his courage of conviction, so let’s fucking go!
I don't think this is a good idea since one major aspect of the UN is that it is suppost to be a neutral ground. If this somehow goes though it could have a massive destabilizing effect on the world. I'm all for arresting war criminals. The problem is geopolitical.
There is also the little tiny issue of him announcing this ahead of time. If he was serious about this he probably should've done this in secret
The ICC is a body established by the UN. To allow a war criminal with an active ICC arrest warrant to stand free on UN ground makes a mockery of that.
You do have a point there
Yeah, you were spot on with the announcement bit, though. If he were serious about getting it done, he should have just... done it.
Though perhaps it will keep the war criminal from feeling free to come to the UN, and maybe that was the goal.
Lol nope.
It would only strengthen trust in the ICC, and powerful people would realise that people run the world, they don't.
Childish talk to impress his childish supporters.
Any world leader going to the UN is granted diplomatic immunity. In the height of the Cold War, Fidel Castro came to NYC many times. You know they would really want to arrest him, but everyone respected diplomatic norms and did not do this. The importance of the UN as a forum for diplomacy was respected.
The US is not a signatory to the ICC. There is exactly zero legal standing for Mamdani to do this.
Mamdani knows these things. He's just being a populist saying things he knows is stupid because his base will eat it up. Once again we have a populist who does not respect his supporters enough to understand when he's talking bullshit. He thinks you're stupid enough to believe that he can arrest someone with diplomatic immunity to enforce some order from an international group that the US isn't a party to.
Is he right? Is his base stupid enough to actually believe this?
Uh, wut.
Castro didn't commit a genocide and wasn't wanted by the ICC for war crimes.
Diplomatic immunity doesn't protect war criminals. It protects you from domestic law violations, not international law violations
I think he's being pretty clear that he's considering options. He did not promise to arrest him. This is not insulting his base's intelligence and his base "eating up" false promises, but a genuine reflection of his and his base's view of Netanyahu: We should do what we can to arrest war criminals like him to stand trial at the ICC
There’s no reason why the leader of an UN member state would be extradited, barring extreme circumstances like the UN Security Council voting to refer the individual to the ICC in narrow cases, like genocide. So, while I don’t think Netanyahu could be extradited, comparing him to Fidel Castro is dumb bait.
Also, diplomatic immunity doesn’t work like that. It’s not like one can become prime minister of a UN member state and then be free to commit crimes anywhere they go.
The way it does work is the world leader gets it from the US State department before the leader enters the US. Do you have any reason to think Trump's state department will either not issue this, and Netanyahu say "whatever I'm coming anyway" or revoke it after he arrived?
Are you really thinking that it's a fucking mayor that decides if someone gets diplomatic immunity?
I mention Castro because even when the US Federal government (who actually has jurisdiction, not a municipal government LOL) would really love to arrest a world leader while they're visiting the UN, they still don't do that. And I don't think the US federal government wants to arrest Netanyhu.
Iran has UN diplomats in the US, why do you think they haven't been arrested? Because only barbarians take people hostage when they come to meet for diplomatic reasons. Not even Trump is as barbaric as that.
I’ve never said that the mayor could do any of that. But again, diplomatic immunity doesn’t work like that. And the reason why the US honors it in NY is because there is an UN framework that guarantees it. They would be creating a crisis inside the UN itself if they didn’t. Not that Trump would care, but essentially withdrawing from the UN and leaving a handful of countries with veto powers run the world wouldn’t exactly be a genius move.
What the US could do is deny visas, which they have in the past, e.g. for Iranian diplomats. Also, they wouldn’t have detained Fidel Castro because he wasn’t indicted of anything by US authorities, and not liking the guy isn’t enough.
They could have come up with something on Fidel, like they have for his brother and for Maduro.
The UN is not a sovereign government, they do not control the laws of any government. They could bar Netanyahu from entering the UN buildings, but they have zero say over him entering the US and whether he'll have diplomatic immunity while in the US. That decision is solely for the State Department, not the UN and definitely not the Mayor of NY.
Yes, the US federal government can do that. Not a a municipal official.
It was good enough to arrest Maduro, and it was good enough to indict Fidel's brother Raul.
In the past you didn't go after the sitting leaders of governments (though I believe Raul Castro is retired now, he was indicted when still in power) since it harms the ability to do diplomacy. Both the UN and US have recently decided to prioritize politics over diplomacy so are putting out warrants on world leaders they don't like. The difference is, the UN doesn't actually have the capability to arrest the people it puts warrants on while the US does.
Sorry to break it to you, the US isn't going to arrest Netanyahu. But the US may arrest some other world leaders they don't like, because apparently that's OK to do now.
So your entire point is that everyone might ignore international treaties and UN frameworks and randomly “make shit up”? OK then?
But then again, I never said that the mayor could do any of that either. You seem to be arguing against yourself.
Do you think the UN is the government of the world? It's not. Nations are sovereign, the UN is a forum for diplomacy between nations.