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."
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?
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
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