Activists arrested outside UN protesting against Netanyahu

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New York City police arrested around 100 protesters, including actors and politicians.

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.

The protest, organised by Jewish Voice for Peace, drew about 200 people wearing identical white T-shirts printed with slogans including “Fund people not bombs,” “No war” and “Free Palestine.”

Police “kettled” protesters who were seated on the pavement and refused to leave the area, chanting “Netanyahu go to hell.” The demonstrators were eventually loaded onto police buses.

Protester Manijeh Moradian, a university professor of Iranian and Jewish heritage, said: “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.”

Inside the UN, Mr Netanyahu took to the stage as many diplomats left the hall in protest against Israel’s actions in the Middle East.

Some of those leaving jeered, forcing the speaker of the session to call for order.

But Mr Netanyahu was not deterred and went on the attack in his speech.

“If there are any other moral cowards who haven’t left this hall, please do so now,” Mr Netanyahu said to those turning their backs on him.

He addressed the war that the US and Israel launched on Iran in February, saying: “Devastating Iran’s nuclear facilities was hard, was very hard to do.”

“But for me, it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make as prime minister,” claiming, without evidence, that if he had not, “we’d all be dead.”

Mr Netanyahu said Israel was fighting a “seven-front war,” including Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen’s Houthis and militias in Iraq.

He declared: “We are going to win. We have no other choice.”

Since October 7 2023, Israel has faced repeated accusations of genocide in Gaza, as well as systematic war crimes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The Hague-based International Criminal Court said in 2024 it had reasonable grounds to believe Mr Netanyahu was responsible for war crimes in Gaza, where over 73,000 Palestinians have been killed.

Mr Netanyahu denies the court’s charges.

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