More than 100 protesters, including elected officials, celebrities, and Democratic Socialists of America leaders aligned with Mayor Zohran Mamdani, were arrested blocking a Manhattan street hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the U.N. General Assembly.
Police took the demonstrators into custody after they sat down in the intersection of 39th Street and First Avenue, just a few blocks south of U.N. headquarters, shutting down traffic in a protest organized by Jewish Voice for Peace. Among those handcuffed and loaded onto police buses: Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Democratic congressional primary winner widely expected to win her general election; New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé; Assemblymember Emily Gallagher; Gustavo Gordillo, co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America's New York City chapter; actress Susan Sarandon; actor and comedian Caleb Hearon; and former Army intelligence officer Chelsea Manning.
The protest drew hundreds of people to the intersection on Thursday, hours before Netanyahu took the stage at the General Assembly. Mamdani himself did not join his allies in the street. Instead, just before the Israeli prime minister's speech, the mayor released a video showing him dining at Gracie Mansion with Palestinian families from Gaza and planting an olive tree on the grounds of the official residence.
Netanyahu used his address to push back directly against Mamdani and the protesters. He called the mayor "antisemitic" from the podium, a remarkable exchange between a head of state and a municipal leader, and addressed Mamdani by name:
"Mr. Mamdani, you try to stop me from coming here. You try to silence me."
Netanyahu then broadened his remarks to target what he called lies about Israel's military operations, delivering a pointed rebuke aimed at both the General Assembly hall and City Hall:
"To all those spreading these lies about my country and about our brave soldiers, whether they sit in this hall or in the office of the antisemitic mayor of New York, I say this: Shame on you. Shame on you for distorting the facts. Shame on you for inverting victim and aggressor. Shame on you for spitting in the face of truth."
Netanyahu also referenced Mamdani's wife, Rama Duwaji, an artist of Syrian descent who has kept a low profile as first lady. The Free Beacon reported that as a teenager, Duwaji once shared a social media post saying Tel Aviv "shouldn't exist in the first place." Mamdani has described his wife as a "private person."
The clash did not come out of nowhere. As a candidate, Mamdani vowed to arrest the Israeli prime minister for war crimes and has repeatedly called Netanyahu a "war criminal" and the "architect of a horrific genocide against Palestinians." Netanyahu's visit to New York was his first since Mamdani was sworn in as mayor in January. That history made Thursday's protest a test of whether the mayor's rhetoric would translate into action, or remain symbolic.
Mamdani chose symbolism. Rather than joining the street blockade, he released a post-speech statement accusing Netanyahu of lying:
"As he has done time and again, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians. Yet no lie can change the fact that he remains the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity."
The ICC issued arrest warrants in 2024 for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. An independent U.N. commission report published in June found the war has killed over 70,000 Palestinians, including 20,000 children, according to the commission's findings. The war began after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Mamdani's tenure has already drawn sharp criticism on multiple fronts. Anti-Jewish hate crimes have surged in New York City during his time in office, with critics pointing to what they call inflammatory rhetoric from the mayor himself.
Not every Mamdani ally committed to civil disobedience. Brad Lander, the former city comptroller who won a Democratic congressional primary this year with Mamdani's backing, attended the protest but moved aside when police ordered demonstrators to clear the roadway. He told reporters he had a conflict later in the afternoon.
Lander framed his decision as a matter of tactical judgment:
"You try to figure out at each moment what's the best way you can contribute."
Avila Chevalier, the congressional primary winner, did not hedge. She was handcuffed and led onto a police bus. Before her arrest, she told reporters:
"You cannot enact a genocide and walk freely through the streets of New York. There has to be accountability."
Avila Chevalier won her primary earlier this year by highlighting her opposition to Israel's military operations in Gaza. Her willingness to get arrested on camera underscored how far the progressive wing of the Democratic Party has moved on the issue, and how deeply Mamdani's political network is invested in confrontation with Israel.
That network extends well beyond elected office. Mamdani has also drawn scrutiny for his handling of basic city governance, from a growing homeless encampment in Manhattan to his controversial approach to housing policy.
Sumaya Awad, director of strategy at the Adalah Justice Project, a pro-Palestinian advocacy group, told Gothamist that Mamdani's absence from the street did not bother her. She argued the mayor was using his office more effectively than any predecessor:
"The question for me is, is he doing everything in his power, in his role, to push for the arrest of Netanyahu. And I think he is doing that in really extraordinary ways that I haven't ever seen before in New York City."
Gustave Kerndt, a 25-year-old activist who traveled from Washington, D.C., to join the protest, was visibly moved when Avila Chevalier was handcuffed. He told Gothamist:
"It just shows how far we've come. I would've never guessed that members of Congress would be sitting in opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu coming to the United Nations. They're going to need bigger and bigger buses every single time a war criminal shows up in the United States."
The day before the protest, some of New York's largest Jewish organizations had joined together for a rally against antisemitism, a pointed counterpoint to the progressive mobilization that followed. Posters bearing Netanyahu's face and the words "Wanted for Genocide" appeared several blocks west of the protest site on Thursday.
Mamdani's pattern of confrontation with legal and institutional authority is well established. He has signaled defiance of a Supreme Court ruling on immigration, and his housing policies have drawn opposition from landlords and property owners across the city.
Thursday's demonstration revealed the breadth of Mamdani's political coalition and its willingness to break the law in pursuit of its goals. Congressional candidates, city councilmembers, state legislators, DSA leaders, Hollywood figures, and a former military intelligence officer all submitted to arrest on a Manhattan street. More than 100 people were taken into custody in total. A second march from Bryant Park to U.N. headquarters was expected later that day.
Despite the growing controversy around his leadership, polling has shown Mamdani outpacing even Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in favorability among likely voters, a sign that his confrontational posture resonates with the progressive base even as it alienates others.
Several organizations cited by the source material, including B'Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the International Association of Genocide Scholars, have characterized Israel's operations in Gaza as genocide. Israel and its allies reject that characterization. Netanyahu's speech made clear he views the accusation as a smear, and he singled out Mamdani as a leading voice spreading what he called distortions.
What remains unanswered is whether any of the more than 100 people arrested will face formal charges, and whether Mamdani's vow to arrest Netanyahu, a foreign head of state protected by diplomatic protocols, was ever more than a campaign applause line. The mayor had every opportunity Thursday to put himself on the line alongside his allies. He planted a tree instead.
A mayor who promises to arrest a world leader but won't even sit in the street with his own supporters has told you everything about the gap between progressive performance and progressive conviction.
