New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has said he was reviewing whether his administration could arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if as expected the Israeli prime minister visits the city for the UN general assembly in September.
Mamdani’s comments on Saturday’s episode of the New York Times’s the Interview podcast echoed ones he had made to the publication as he successfully ran for mayor last fall.
“I believe that prime minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani said, referring to the Dutch city that is home to the international criminal court, which issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024 over alleged war crimes in Gaza. “He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the international criminal court, and what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these past many years.”
Mamdani said it was unclear to him whether he has the legal authority to order the New York police department (NYPD), which he oversees, to detain a foreign leader like Netanyahu. But he said he was in “an active conversation” with the city’s law department about the matter.
If trump can kidnap the president of Venezuela we can arrest netanyahu.
Agreed.
Even if you can’t hold him you should just arrest him anyway. Embarrass him. Make him sit in a cell for a few minutes and make a photo op out of it.
Yep. Good old ‘You can beat the charges, but you can’t beat the ride.’
Perfectly legal under New York law to arrest him and hold him in a cell for 24 hours while you decide whether or not you can actually charge him with anything.
I like that thinking.
No a photo op can go seriously awry. Just see what’s legally doable.
Go out into the street and execute him. Then piss on the corpse.
That could backfire spectacularly. Arrest him, trump immediately gets on tv demanding his release, and even if they were going to release him anyway, the right-wing will flaunt it as a “win,” that Mamdani backed down to trump.
Of course, trump would then have the DOJ investigate Mamdani and pin some bullshit charges on him.
Mamdani could ride his bike around in a Speedo going ding ding!
I can fap to this
Whether he can order them to, whether there would be diplomatic blowback, and whether they can legally do so are three very different questions, probably answered yes, hell yes, and “it depends how fast you can get him to the Hauge”. The current administration has shown that detaining heads of state is acceptable, so long as you get them out quickly.
It would be so funny if the mayor of new york black bagged netanyahu and handed him over to the icelandic police or interpol.
NYPD has no authority to detain anyone outside the borders of New York, so who is going to operate the flight?
A private plane leaving New York going east must obtain oceanic clearance from FAA air traffic controllers to transit the oceanic airspace. (I’m just assuming that there’s some way to get out of the mess of NYC controlled airspace from an outlying field on VFR without contacting ATC. But in the oceanic region class A tends to drop really low to try to get under.).
In any case, such a flight would be confronted immediately by the US Atlantic Air Defense Identification Zone. All flights are required to establish two-way communication and be assigned a discrete transponder code. Non-compliers are intercepted by the US Air Force for visual identification, and they can be coerced into landing back in US territory. So it would be pretty easy for the feds to get them there.
In addition civilian flights entering and leaving US territory are required to file eAPIS notices with CBP containing passenger manifests with passport numbers, etc., at least 60 minutes before departure. So if this plane hits the ADIZ with no eAPIS or with fishy eAPIS, it’s another way for the feds to find out which one to intercept.
But in any case, a more likely response is just a TFR that closes New York or the entire North Atlantic airspace to civilians. And nobody gets to go to Europe that night. Nothing on that scale has happened since 9/11, but we’re talking about kidnapping a head of state, not Edward Snowden.
What about driving him to Canada?
CBP is now taking pictures of all vehicles leaving at land crossings. But overall it’s much easier to hide a body in the trunk of a car than in a private aircraft. Particularly if there’s some cooperation with Canadian border services.
I don’t, for a second think Mamdani will actually order him arrested, the posturing is likely all just for show, but if he did, and they managed to bundle Netanyahu on to a plane, what exactly could anyone do about it once they took off? Shoot it down, killing Netanyahu in the process? The government would be on the horns of a very classic dilemma; let the plane go, losing Netanyahu, or shoot it down, killing him? As I said in my first post, the diplomatic and political fallout to a plan like this would be extreme whatever happened.
My suspicion is they’d shoot, and try to pin the whole thing on radical leftwing trans communist muslim terrorists. It go down well with trump’s base, and do nothing to mollify any other states.
I doubt they would shoot the plane down but otherwise agree.
I mean, if they are willing to extralegally kidnapp a head of state, why comply with orders to return to US? The only reason to stop the plane is to rescue Netanyahu, and shooting at the plane would defeat that purpose. But realistically, it would already all go wrong at the arrest part. Heads of state don’t travel without bodyguards that don’t give a shit if you have a badge of local police. Would likely be a shootout, unless NYPD had owevhelming numbers and managed to surround them.
Also, spoiler alert, it is not legal in any way and Mamdani is just talking shit. Which is not a criticism really, I like good shit talking like this.
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This is what a hero looks like America.
If New York gets a new Batman character soon, it will probably be him
Let’s fucking go.
I don’t know if that’s a good idea. He’s a mass murderer
Stupid performative bullshit that doesn’t matter considering who his police commissioner is or did we forget that Tisch is a well known Zionist with ties to both Israel and Netanyahu.
Purely performance politics. Its a show and yall are falling for it
Even a baby-step in the right direction is the right direction and a step.
So tell me again how this mayor who can only command the police force to arrest somebody is going to arrest someone without that police force. How exactly is this a step in the right direction and not bold-faced liberal propaganda designed to make Madamni look good without lifting a finger?
Who said Madamni was TRYING to look good?
What people need to see is enforcement of laws that are already on the books.
If the police won’t enforce the existing laws then we need POLICE REFORM. That’s what he CAN do.
A baby step in the right direction.
Sure thing, Das.
Thank you for your reply.
Yeah, can’t wait to see how he’s going to arrest Netanyahu, who already gave his speech at the U.N. Assembly, by the way, without a police force that’s willing to arrest him Since you know he’s a mayor and that’s about all the power he has.
Of course all I’m doing is being pragmatic and pointing out how this is literally a piece of liberal propaganda that is not going to amount to anything. It’s performative bullshit. It’s not even baby steps. He might as well have said he has thoughts and prayers for Netanyahu facing justice. Would have accomplished the same fucking thing, namely good press and absolutely no action.
Again.
Thank you for your reply Das. Have a nice Sunday.
Thanks for contributing bs liberal propaganda to the Lemisphere. Really appreciate it, making it feel more like reddit.
You have a good one yourself.
Ur a real cunt aren’t ya ? Ya nazi fuck go suck a tailpipe if I wanted your input I’d find a pile of dog shit and ask
Tankie rather than Nazi, actually, judging by the instance.
You’re right about the rest, though 🤷🏻
considering who his police commissioner is
Can the mayor fire and replace the police commissioner?
Arresting Netanyahu is objectively far more materiality significant than keeping Tisch as police commissioner.
I don’t like that he kept Tisch, but let’s not pretend like she’s more powerful than the literal Prime Minister of Israel
Since when does a mayor have the authority to enforce international law? Oh wait he doesn’t. This is all window dressing, he’ll do nothing.
I dunno, man.
People have said that over and over again about Mamdani, and he keeps actually doing what he says he will.
This is a real test. If he pulls this off, I won’t necessarily be a believer, but I will be willing to keep paying attention to him.
Ok lets say he tries. The Secret Service and the MOSSAD are never going to let NYPD near him for national security reasons. Israel is a nuclear power, this could kick off a major international incident.
And him saying this puts them on high alert, if you wanted to do this you say nothing and do it. Thats why I think this is just grand standing.
No, man. I love that he’s said it publicly.
I love that Bibi doesn’t get to waltz into the US with this manufactured air of respectability, and I love that if he does come to New York he’s going to have to field questions about being a war criminal.
The failure to say things that need to be said is, in part, how we got here.
And besides, it’s good politics. He got elected in part by refusing to do the Israel waltz that all the genociding centrists have been doing for decades. This kind of pushback is what voters want.
Let’s say they arrest him. Do you really, REALLY think they will send nuclear bombs? Where to? NY, where Bibi would be? WA, where their puppet is? Iowa because fuck of I know?
lol I said nothing like that, it shows that they are a top tier military that can use that sway to influence their region in ways the US would rather not see. This is not that simple as what your saying. This is Geo Politics and a green mayor should stay out of it.
Good every one should be shouting it, if the pedo ring collapses and trump files get exposed I’m willin to spill billionaires blood
The rich never go to war, the poors like us are sent to the slaughter.
This has nothing to do with trump, this is way bigger than that.
The media is using “Netanyahu” and “war criminal” in the same sentence. He doesn’t have to do anything. He’s already won this round.
Trump has done A LOT of things he “can’t do”
Examples please?
Fuck off
Exactly like I expected, you make a false claim and lash out when you can’t back it. So typical.
You never know until you try.
Absolutely right, it will be a clown show of politics. I got plenty of popcorn for the event!
