At least 30 people were taken into custody outside United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday, as actors, elected officials and activists gathered to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of his speech to the General Assembly.
Among those arrested were Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon, Emmy winner Hannah Einbinder, Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier and New York City council member Chi Osse, according to authorities and organizers.
A Demonstration of Civil Disobedience
The rally was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, a Jewish activist group that supports Palestinians. Around 200 people assembled outside the UN in matching white T-shirts bearing slogans including “Fund people not bombs,” “No war” and “Free Palestine.”
Protesters blocked traffic, prompting police to order the crowd to disperse through loudspeakers. While some moved to the sidewalks, a core group remained seated on the pavement, continuing to chant anti-Netanyahu slogans as officers arriving on bicycles surrounded them.
One by one, police pulled demonstrators from the group, secured their hands behind their backs with zip ties and escorted them to waiting police buses. Activists kept up their chants of “Netanyahu go to hell” as the arrests continued.
Voices From the Crowd
Manijeh Moradian, a 50-year-old university professor of Iranian and Jewish heritage who joined the protest, framed the demonstration as a moral obligation.
“What’s being done to Gaza, the obliteration of an entire society, in our name, with our tax dollars, this is our responsibility to speak out against, and Netanyahu has no right to use the platform of the United Nations to justify these atrocities,” she said.
Netanyahu Defends Israel Before a Divided Assembly
Inside the General Assembly Hall, Netanyahu defended Israel’s actions in the region, seeking to counter growing international isolation ahead of elections he could lose. As he spoke, dozens of delegates streamed out of the hall in a visible show of dissent.
The arrests outside the UN underscored the intensifying pressure facing the Israeli leader, whose visit to New York has drawn some of the largest and most prominent demonstrations of the ongoing war.
