Police arrested more than 100 demonstrators, including Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon and other celebrities and politicians, during a sit-in outside the United Nations as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the General Assembly.
The NYPD cleared First Avenue near 39th Street in Manhattan on Thursday after hundreds of protesters refused to leave, local reporters witnessed officers taking Sarandon, 79, and actress Hannah Einbinder into custody along with New York City Council members, a congressional candidate, comedian Caleb Hearon, and Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. A police dispersal order went out around 12:30 p.m., and those who stayed seated on the pavement were zip-tied and loaded onto police buses.
The protest, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace and the Democratic Socialists of America, drew roughly 200 participants wearing matching white T-shirts printed with slogans like "Fund people not bombs" and "Free Palestine." They blocked traffic and chanted demands for Netanyahu's arrest ahead of his scheduled speech to world leaders.
Arrest totals varied slightly across outlets. The New York Post reported 104 demonstrators arrested, while Breitbart put the figure at 103. Either way, the sit-in produced a roster of recognizable names: Sarandon, Einbinder, Manning, Hearon, actor Elliot Page, New York City Council members Chi Osse and Jen Gutierrez, and NY-13 congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier.
Avila Chevalier told PIX11 she had no intention of complying with the dispersal order.
"Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. If the police tell us to disperse, I will not be leaving... It's deeply ironic that the people who will likely be facing arrest today are the people calling for an end to this violence."
Her campaign later issued a statement doubling down: "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."
Council member Osse framed his participation in blunt terms.
"I'm here because I'm sick and tired of my taxpayer dollars going towards the act of genocide and the murder of Palestinian children, men and women."
Einbinder, best known for HBO's Hacks, offered her own explanation for joining the protest despite potential professional fallout.
"The cost of not speaking is higher, you know? There is a greater toll in not speaking, and you just gotta have your priorities straight."
Delegates from dozens of nations walked out as Netanyahu took the stage. The Israeli prime minister used his address to criticize New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and others who opposed Israel's military operations, according to Fox News. Several of the arrested politicians were described as allies of Mamdani.
Despite the sit-in and the walkout, Netanyahu arrived and spoke on schedule. A second, larger rally of more than 2,000 demonstrators organized by the Palestine Youth Movement marched from Bryant Park toward U.N. headquarters later that day.
University professor Manijeh Moradian, who Reuters identified as being of Iranian and Jewish heritage, told reporters at the scene:
"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."
Not everyone outside the U.N. agreed. Beth Phillips, 63, a Netanyahu supporter, offered a different view: "It's been horrible for Jewish people. His people that he surrounds himself with praised 9/11. Jews are in danger. We are at risk."
Thursday's arrest was the latest chapter in a pattern that has cost Sarandon professionally. At a New York City rally in November 2023, weeks after Hamas's attack on Israel, she told the crowd that American Jews were "getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country." The backlash was swift. She was reportedly dropped by her talent agency, UTA, and later apologized in writing, calling the phrasing "a terrible mistake."
"I will continue my commitment to peace, truth, justice, and compassion for all people," Sarandon wrote at the time.
But the apology did not end the professional consequences. Speaking at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month to promote her new film The Echo Chamber, Sarandon said agencies were still telling filmmakers not to hire her.
"In terms of the power structure, I've still had movies taken away recently, because there are agencies that are telling people not to hire me still. But that's the power structure."
She credited director Andrea Pallaoro with casting her despite what she called "warnings" from industry gatekeepers. "I thank Andrea for that, because he didn't listen to the warnings," she said.
Sarandon also claimed the broader public conversation had shifted. "I think that the narrative has completely changed," she told reporters in Venice. But she acknowledged that powerful figures in Hollywood had not moved. "There are still very strongly held positions within my industry held by Zionists and [those] who have not relaxed their feelings towards me."
What went largely unexamined in the day's coverage was the spectacle itself. Multiple sitting elected officials, council members who draw city salaries to serve New York constituents, traveled to First Avenue to get arrested on camera alongside Hollywood celebrities and a congressional candidate running on the episode as a campaign credential. The protest was organized, the T-shirts were printed, and the participants knew the dispersal order was coming. Avila Chevalier said so explicitly before it arrived.
No charges have been publicly reported. The formal arrest status of those taken into custody remains unclear. Whether any of the 100-plus detainees faced consequences beyond a few hours in police processing is an open question, one that speaks to whether this was a genuine act of civil disobedience or a choreographed photo opportunity dressed up as moral courage.
Taxpayers who fund both the NYPD overtime and the council salaries might reasonably wonder which part of this exercise served them.
