As the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, prepared to deliver his speech at the UN headquarters in New York City on Thursday, hundreds of people blocked traffic on the streets outside, with dozens of people arrested as of early afternoon.
The protest outside the UN, one of several this week against the embattled Israeli leader, drew hundreds of Jewish, Palestinian, Iranian and Lebanese New Yorkers, among others, as well as several elected officials and candidates in the November election, and a number of celebrities.
Many wore shirts reading “Fund people not bombs” and chanted slogans like “Let Gaza live” and “the whole world is watching.” Official vehicles heading to the UN were diverted as protesters sat down in the middle of the street for more than an hour, unfurling banners that called to “end the genocide” and flying a kite reading “Free Palestine” – a reference to Israel’s threat earlier this year that it would target Palestinian children flying kites, organizers said.
Another protest, planned for later on Thursday afternoon is also expected to draw large crowds to midtown Manhattan, before a planned march toward the UN.
On Wednesday, members of the Democratic Socialists of America’s New York City chapter rallied at the city’s John F Kennedy international airport in protest of weapons and explosive materials destined for the Israeli military being flown out of the airport on commercial aircraft.
“What we made clear today is that New Yorkers, including Jewish New Yorkers, do not want war criminals and the architects of genocide coming to our city,” said Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, which coordinated the first protest outside the UN. “This is something that we have been saying for years, especially over the last three years during which Israel has killed over 75,000 Palestinians in this genocide – and to be clear that is a severe undercount.”
Protests have long been a staple of Netanyahu’s appearances at the UN, but as Israel’s political isolation has deepened against the backdrop of its destruction of Gaza, the tone of this year’s demonstrations reflect many Americans’ growing anger at their own government’s continued support to the Israeli military.
“We will not be silent as our government fully funds a genocide in Palestine,” said actor Hannah Einbinder, who has frequently spoken out for Palestinians’ rights and who was arrested on Thursday, ahead of the protest. “This moment calls on each and every one of us to speak out and demand the US stop funding genocide.”
She said she felt a moral obligation to join the protests “as a Jew, as an American, and as a human being”.
Fellow actor Susan Sarandon, whistleblower Chelsea Manning and comedian Caleb Hearon were also among those detained by the NYPD.
Opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza has prompted a seismic shift in US public opinion of Israel, a change that has begun to trickle into US elections, with scores of leftist candidates winning primaries earlier this year while openly calling to end US aid to Israel. While reflexive support for Israel was once a prerequisite for anyone running for office, in some districts it has increasingly become a liability.
Many of the openly pro-Palestinian candidates who seized primary wins earlier this year were also at Thursday’s protest, including New York’s Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brad Lander, Pennsylvania’s Chris Rabb, New Jersey’s Adam Hamawy, and Colorado’s Melat Kiros.
“I think it is really important to send a message that New Yorkers do not stand for this,” Chevalier, a pro-Palestinian activist whose primary win in June stunned the political establishment, told reporters at the protest shortly before being arrested. “It is really important that we show that we are willing to fight back against our tax dollars being used to commit war crimes.”
Hamawy, an army doctor who participated in a medical mission in Gaza in 2024, told the Guardian as police moved in to make arrests “we’re ready to do what we have to do. We shouldn’t have to do that to stop a genocide. It’s ridiculous that we have to come out on the streets and protest when we have the body that’s supposed to be upholding international law right there in front of us, inviting Netanyahu as a guest rather than trying him as a war criminal in The Hague.”
The NYPD did not immediately confirm the number of arrests but organizers estimate it was more than 100. The office of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The large protests presented a challenge to Mamdani, who at one point pledged to arrest Netanyahu should he come to town and who has long said his administration supports New Yorkers’ right to protest.
Mamdani has repeatedly called Netanyahu a “war criminal” who is “not welcome in New York City” but admitted earlier this year that he does not have the legal authority to order his arrest, calling instead on the federal government to do so. At a press conference earlier this week, Mamdani said that he had no plans to attend any protests outside the UN but made clear that New Yorkers were free to do so.
“To New Yorkers, I have never encouraged them to protest, what I have always told them is that they have the right to do so in this city,” he said. “We respect that right and this is a city that is proud of the constitution and proud of the first amendment.”
Mamdani’s own election, after a historic campaign in which his criticism of Israel played an outsized role, was a sign of just how much how many New Yorkers had turned on Israel.
“Mayor Mamdani campaigned and won his election speaking about a promise to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu and that was something that thousands and hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers voted for,” said Aber Kawas, who in November is slated to become the first Palestinian-American elected official in the New York legislature and who was also detained at Thursday’s protest.
“Him winning is sending a message that this is what constituents want to see,” she added. “They do not want Benjamin Netanyahu to be allowed to enter into New York City and they want Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested.”