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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.

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[-] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago

If trump can kidnap the president of Venezuela we can arrest netanyahu.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago
[-] Blibly@lemmy.world 73 points 1 day ago

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.

[-] OwOarchist@pawb.social 31 points 1 day ago

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.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago
[-] Maeve@kbin.earth 4 points 1 day ago

No a photo op can go seriously awry. Just see what's legally doable.

[-] BC_viper@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Go out into the street and execute him. Then piss on the corpse.

[-] OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world -2 points 20 hours ago

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.

[-] Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world -1 points 1 day ago

Mamdani could ride his bike around in a Speedo going ding ding!

[-] DoubleDongle@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

I can fap to this

[-] notabot@piefed.social 29 points 1 day ago

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.

[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 29 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

It would be so funny if the mayor of new york black bagged netanyahu and handed him over to the icelandic police or interpol.

[-] mkwt@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago

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.

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 1 points 7 hours ago

What about driving him to Canada?

[-] mkwt@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

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.

[-] notabot@piefed.social 11 points 20 hours ago

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.

[-] DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago

I doubt they would shoot the plane down but otherwise agree.

[-] DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

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.

[-] newworldzip@lemmy.zip 1 points 19 hours ago

You literally made up a scenario where it wouldn’t work so you can larp? Like to be this malignant is on purpose, you talk like cop imma find you you.

[-] wirebeads@lemmy.ca 31 points 1 day ago

This is what a hero looks like America.

[-] Erusset@slrpnk.net 7 points 22 hours ago

If New York gets a new Batman character soon, it will probably be him

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago

Let's fucking go.

[-] Greymattertripp@lemmus.org 8 points 1 day ago

I don't know if that's a good idea. He's a mass murderer

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this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2026
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