Mamdani calls for federal gov. to arrest Netanyahu

[00:00:00]Mondani, he was talking about his comments about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. So, in a video released last night, the mayor called the Prime Minister a war criminal, and he addressed that at a press conference today.

[00:00:11]>> Yeah, so Mayor Zohran Mamdani on the campaign trail made it very clear that he believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, and that he believes that Netanyahu has committed and Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza. And those are comments that he made on the campaign trail and has made since taking office. On the campaign trail though, he was really insisting that he would arrest Netanyahu if he came to New York City. Once he started getting some questions about it on the campaign trail, he sort of backed off it slightly to say that of course he would follow all legal laws here in the country, and he would look at whether or not this is something he could actually do.

[00:00:56]But, it is something that he has made very clear that he believes that Netanyahu should be arrested for his alleged war crimes in Gaza, and he's pointed repeatedly at the International Criminal Court, which we're going to get to in a second. But, Mamdani really has said and doubled down that he believes that Netanyahu should be arrested, but then last night he released a video saying that he does not have the legal authority to arrest Netanyahu, which is pretty widely known and accepted from a lot of legal experts that that have been weighing in on the issue now for several months. And so, some of the big questions today came from whether or not he's sort of has dragged out this messaging, and how long he's known about whether or not he could arrest Netanyahu and the fact that he can't. So, as you know, the International Criminal Court, the United States does not recognize the authority of the International Criminal Court, But, uh the ICC or the International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for Netanyahu's arrest.

[00:02:03]But again, the United States does not recognize their authority, nor does it allow for the prosecution of any American citizens through um the ICC.

[00:02:12]But, uh there is a warrant out for his arrest through the ICC, and Momdani has said that he believes that Netanyahu should face his alleged war crimes. And he He said in his video yesterday that even though he can't legally go out and arrest Netanyahu, he believes that the federal government should go and arrest Netanyahu and bring him to face charges uh in front of the International Criminal Court.

[00:02:37]But, there's a couple different layers here. So, President Donald Trump as well has made it very clear that this is not something that he would allow to happen, that he would allow to do.

[00:02:46]Outside of that, um there are a lot of protections for foreign leaders, especially when they're coming to the United States for the United Nations.

[00:02:55]And that's what uh Netanyahu will likely be here in September for is to attend the United Nations General Assembly. And there are a lot of protections protecting foreign leaders uh when they come to an event like this. And some have even said it sort of goes against the spirit of the United Nations, which is to bring all of these foreign leaders together. But, Momdani really facing questions today about when he found out about whether or not he could legally detain uh Netanyahu. And this is something, as I said, he has been talking about repeatedly on the campaign trail. And when he was elected, he said on day one he was going to be asking his legal team whether he would have this authority.

[00:03:36]Now, when he was pressed today about whether or not how long he's known, is this something that's taken his legal team 7 months to come to this decision?

[00:03:45]He wouldn't answer. And he was asked repeatedly again and again how many days, and he just said, um you know, he was like, "I I've answered the question. He he refused to say how long and why he chose last night and to release this in a video.

[00:03:58]And just why he chose that sort of outlet to explain why he wasn't going to be arresting Netanyahu. Some have accused him of just trying to play to his base when he knew it was never going to be legally possible. Another issue that's really come up is his messaging. He's focused so much on Israel. There are other warrants that have been issued by the International Criminal Court for other leaders besides Netanyahu. But Mamdani has chosen to spend the majority of his time talking about Netanyahu. And he's made this sort of caveat saying that Netanyahu is one of the few leaders, I guess, on the International Criminal Court's list that actually comes to visit the United States. And for example, there are Hamas leaders on that warrant.

[00:04:46]Most of them are dead, but they um there are some of those, and so he was asked today about that as well if he would have that same criticism, but he sort of goes back to this caveat of that they are not accepted by the United States, they're not welcome, and they're not coming in and visiting like Netanyahu is.

[00:05:06]Um but uh he was also asked today about whether or not that attack on October 7th by Hamas on Israel, if that counts as genocide. Because he's been very clear that he believes that Israel has committed a genocide. So, we're going to play quick clip here um about uh his answer when he was pressed today about whether or not he believes that uh what Hamas did to Israel on October 7th counts as genocide.

[00:05:36]>> I consider October 7th to be a horrific war crime.

[00:05:40]I I've considered it to be something that should be deeply opposed with every single fiber of our being. Frankly, I know that there are Jewish New Yorkers who agree with my analysis. There are those who disagree with my analysis. And my responsibility to them is to ensure that they are cherished, they are celebrated, and they are safe in their city.

[00:06:05]>> All right, you just heard what Mondani had to say. And you know, as you can hear there, Mondani's just saying that he avoiding the question of whether or not this really counted as a genocide in Israel.

[00:06:15]And so he avoided that question and some people in the Jewish community have been very critical about that saying that they believe there should be more of a balance when Mondani talks about this issue and especially on how he has focused so much on Israel's role in this war and nothing about some of the other tensions going on in the Middle East around all of this and Hamas's role as well. Even though as you heard there, he did condemn Hamas's actions and said that it was wrong. But some in the Jewish community feel like that doesn't go far enough and they feel like this has been more of an attack and targeted criticism towards Israel and Israel being a Jewish state as a whole.

[00:07:00]>> Wow, and he kept getting pressed about that, too.

[00:07:02]>> Yes, he got a lot of questions and to his credit, he did take a lot of questions on it today. His press conference was actually on economic development today, but it lasted for about an hour, over an hour, and the majority of the questions, a huge chunk I would say of the questions, were about the the Netanyahu video that he released yesterday and just his comments there.

[00:07:27]Now, he is calling on the federal government to arrest Netanyahu, which as we talked about, President Trump said he's not going to do. Mondani was also asked what people should do, what New Yorkers, his supporters, should do when Netanyahu is here in New York City. And he said, uh, that they should protest his visit and encouraged them to protest. Didn't say exactly what that would look like or, uh, what sort of, I guess, NYPD presence would might be needed for that, um, especially if it is during the United Nations General Assembly. There's going to be obviously a lot >> Tons of security.

[00:07:58]>> foreign dignitaries here as well, and just a lot of, uh, stuff going on. So, it's going to be interesting to see >> what happens.

[00:08:04]>> encouragement there is, uh, maybe going to backfire or if it's going to be contained.