Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Democratic Socialists of America-backed nominee for a New York congressional seat, was arrested Thursday outside the United Nations after blocking a Manhattan roadway during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one of more than 100 demonstrators taken into custody by the NYPD.
Police moved in on the crowd at the corner of 1st Avenue and 39th Street after protesters sat down in the road and refused repeated orders to disperse, Fox News Digital reported. The demonstration, timed to coincide with Netanyahu's address to the UN General Assembly, drew roughly 250 people. By the time officers finished clearing the avenue, 104 had been arrested, according to the New York Post.
Avila Chevalier, 32, is the Democratic nominee for New York's 13th Congressional District, which covers Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx. She won the seat's June primary by unseating five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in what amounted to a major upset driven by the Democratic Socialists of America's New York City chapter.
Her campaign wasted no time framing the arrest as a badge of honor. A Thursday afternoon post from her campaign's social media account declared:
"Darializa was just arrested while peacefully protesting Netanyahu's speech at the United Nations."
A second post from the same account went further: "Our government has unlimited funds to arm a genocide against Palestinians but tells us there's nothing left to feed and house our own people. Stop arming Israel!" The campaign's use of "genocide" is its own characterization, not an established legal finding.
Avila Chevalier was far from the only prominent figure hauled away. Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon, Emmy winner Hannah Einbinder, and whistleblower Chelsea Manning were all among those arrested, the Post reported. New York City Council members Chi Ossé, Alexa Avilés, and Jennifer Gutiérrez were also taken into custody.
The protest was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, a left-wing activist group that supports Palestinian causes, along with the DSA. Reuters reported that at least 30 of the arrestees were considered notable public figures.
Despite the street disruption, Netanyahu arrived at the General Assembly and delivered his speech on schedule. Dozens of UN delegates walked out as he took the podium, a gesture Netanyahu addressed head-on.
"If there are any other moral cowards who haven't yet left this hall, please do so now," the Israeli prime minister told the remaining audience, as the Washington Examiner reported.
After her release, Avila Chevalier doubled down. She told Bloomberg that "Netanyahu belongs at the Hague, not in the streets of New York City, and certainly not addressing the United Nations General Assembly." Her campaign issued a separate statement declaring:
"As the Democratic Nominee for New York's 13th Congressional District, I refuse to allow a war criminal to roam the streets of our city unchallenged."
That rhetoric tracks closely with the posture of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who endorsed Avila Chevalier in late May, praising what he called her commitment to working-class New Yorkers and saying he looked forward to fighting alongside her on an affordability agenda. Mamdani himself has drawn sharp rebukes from Netanyahu's office over his own calls for the Israeli leader's arrest.
The mayor's selective outrage has drawn scrutiny of its own. Mamdani pressed loudly for Netanyahu's detention but went conspicuously silent when Iran's president arrived in the same city, a double standard that undercuts any claim to principled human-rights enforcement.
President Trump moved to settle the legal question directly, declaring Netanyahu safe from arrest on U.S. soil and rejecting the International Criminal Court framework Mamdani had invoked.
Avila Chevalier's arrest did not come out of nowhere. Fox News Digital had previously reported that she led anti-Israel protests at Columbia University and said she helped launch Columbia University Apartheid Divest's boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign. CUAD drew scrutiny for social media posts that included the phrases "Death to America" and a call for the "eradication of Western civilization."
That background makes her trajectory worth watching. She moved from campus activism to toppling a five-term incumbent, and now, weeks before a general election, she is getting arrested at a roadway blockade organized by groups openly hostile to a close American ally.
The NYPD declined to provide Fox News Digital with additional information beyond directing reporters to its public information phone line. Avila Chevalier's campaign did not respond to the outlet's request for comment. Specific charges filed against any of the arrested protesters were not disclosed in any available reporting.
A second, larger rally organized by the Palestine Youth Movement drew over 2,000 demonstrators who marched from Bryant Park toward UN headquarters, the Post reported, underscoring the scale of the organized effort surrounding Netanyahu's visit.
Not everyone outside the UN that day agreed with the protesters. Beth Phillips, a 63-year-old Netanyahu supporter from the Upper East Side, offered a different view. "It's been horrible for Jewish people," she told the Post. "His people that he surrounds himself with praised 9/11. Jews are in danger. We are at risk."
The Israeli ambassador has accused Mamdani of backing Hamas and courting Iran, charges that hang over the broader political network now rallying behind Avila Chevalier's candidacy.
What the 13th District has in Avila Chevalier is a nominee who got her start with a campus group that called for the end of Western civilization, won a primary with DSA muscle, accepted the mayor's endorsement, and now treats a roadway arrest at an anti-Israel protest as a campaign highlight. None of that happened by accident. It is a political worldview, and voters will get to render judgment on it in November.
Over 100 people were arrested that Thursday near the United Nations. The celebrities will go home to their publicists. The council members will go back to City Hall. Avila Chevalier will go back to the campaign trail, and the voters of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx will decide whether blocking traffic for a foreign policy stunt is the kind of representation they actually need.
When getting arrested becomes the résumé line, the campaign has already told you everything you need to know about the candidate.
