cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/49644560
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.
18 Comments
Arrandee@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 44d
Its going to be dope as hell when the civil war pops off with NYPD vs ICE in a shootout in Manhattan.
NatakuNox@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 44d
In what world is the NYPD on the people's side?
SuiXi3D@fedia.io · 2 pts · 43d
Whomever wins, we lose.
HereticalHooligan@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 44d
Ha I doubt Mamdani would make his police chief order NYPD to forcefully grab Netanyahu if ICE (or any other federal force) was physically protecting him. The furthest I could see it escalating is NYPD cops staring at his escort.
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 44d
I’m sure the NYPD has plenty of Palestinian volunteers.
Hit it covertly and dump him in some embassy that absolutely would extradite him. Or sneakily get him into a truck and just chauffeur him.
Legal? Probably not.
But that shit has flown the chicken coop.
FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 44d
Don’t forget the New York national guard
redsand@infosec.pub · 5 pts · 44d
To protect a corrupt Jewish warlord citizen of Israel... I don't know if there's irony there but it does seem like some kind of cosmic joke.
ryannathans@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 44d
For us non Americans can you please explain the connection between Netanyahu and ICE
Archangel1313@lemmy.ca · 20 pts · 44d
Trump 100% supports Netanyahu, and ICE is basically his version of the Brown Shirts.
lemmyng@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 44d
ICE's arrest tactics are ripped directly from the IDF's playbook:
https://truthout.org/articles/ice-and-the-israeli-military-are-2-sides-of-the-same-coin-we-must-resist-both/
https://www.waterjusticeinpalestine.org/blog/2026/1/27/ice-amp-the-israeli-army-are-using-the-same-playbook
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2026/01/15/from-palestine-to-minneapolis-ice-and-israel-use-the-same-violent-playbook/
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 44d
For the record, they ripped them from Hitler’s playbook.
Who ripped them from some prior asshole’s playbook.
SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip · 29 pts · 44d
This is a brilliant political move. It's a rhetorical technique called Thinking Past the Sale; you make people debate a question that assumes the thing you want to convince them of, like a car salesman asking you to picture what you'll do after you've bought the car. My favorite example is from the old Trix cereal commercials. Forget the question of whether Trix is any good. The question is, since Trix is so desirable, does the rabbit get any?
Mamdani can't legally arrest Netanyahu for being a war criminal, but since we're talking about the question of legality, look at the idea he sneakily got us to buy, and the words he got the media to publish.
Stupidmanager@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 43d
I remember settling this as a kid, Trix are for kids, the commercial was pretty clear on that.
dizzle18@lemmy.zip · 14 pts · 44d
Here's hoping he resists arrest, and a jumpy rookie mistakes his cell phone for a Glock.
Sirius006@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 44d
Can't he just create a stalemate where the NYPD blocks Netanyahu's car and then call the feds?
They would probably do nothing with him, but Mamdani would have done his part, Netanyahu would have an horrible time, and the trump administration would have once again to explain their acts, maybe loosing a few voters along the way.
But maybe it would make things even worse, IDK.
Goldmage263@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 43d
Not that the federal police are likely to act on it, as much as I'd love otherwise.
FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 42d
Maybe let’s do it but with the New York national guard
REDACTED@infosec.pub · 0 pts · 44d
When he took office, I thought to myself "this guy is not going to be able to stay away from geopolitics and eventually do something really stupid"