New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told The New York Times that he is still interested in bringing about the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if, as expected, he comes to the city for the United Nations General Assembly in September.
Mamdani said it remains unclear whether he has the legal authority to instruct the New York Police Department, which he oversees, to detain a foreign leader such as Netanyahu. He said he is in “an active conversation” with the city’s Law Department on the matter.
“Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we will do, but we won’t be writing our own laws to that end,” he said.
“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in the Hague. 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 last many years.”
During his campaign for mayor last year, Mamdani said he would order the police to arrest Netanyahu.
Netanyahu has said he is not concerned by the threat and accused the mayor of supporting Hamas.
“I think he should look at who he's condemning, who he’s praising,” Netanyahu said in an interview this week.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
(Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
“He’s condemning Israel, the one democracy that stands shoulder to shoulder with American values.”
“Who does he champion? Hamas, that calls openly to massacre every Jew on earth, that conducted that horrible massacre, the worst massacre on Jews since the Holocaust.”
Netanyahu also said Mamdani “doesn’t care” that “those who hate the Jews and Israel ultimately hate America.”
“And in fact I think secretly, he hates America,” Netanyahu added.
The New York Times noted that Mamdani condemned the October 7 terror attack.
Asked about his wife Rama Duwaji liking a post that celebrated the Hamas attack, Mamdani said: “She is her own person. She’s an incredible artist, and yet so much of how she engages with the world today is framed through her being my wife.”
Duwaji later apologized after the matter became public.