Over 100 Protesters Arrested at Peaceful Sit-In Ahead of Netanyahu’s UN Speech

Over 100 protesters were arrested near the United Nations in New York on Thursday ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the General Assembly. The sit-in, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, denounced Netanyahu for perpetrating a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, building more illegal settlements in the West Bank, occupying parts of Lebanon and bombing Iran alongside the United States. Democracy Now! spoke with participants, including some congressional candidates and other prominent figures.

TRANSCRIPT

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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, today broadcasting from London, where the film about Democracy Now!, Steal This Story, Please!, is playing throughout the weekend in theaters. You can check our website at democracynow.org. I’ll be speaking along with the Oscar-nominated director after each film screening.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations General Assembly Thursday. In a few minutes, we’ll play excerpts of his address and get reaction from former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, who’s at the U.N. right now. But first to the streets outside the United Nations, where hundreds of protesters called on world leaders to stop arming Israel and to end the genocide in Gaza. Democracy Now!’s Amba Guerguerian was there.

PROTESTERS: Stop arming Israel! Let Gaza live!

AMBA GUERGUERIAN: Ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations on Thursday, hundreds of demonstrators led by Jewish Voice for Peace staged a sit-in protest in New York City, stopping traffic for more than an hour just three blocks away from the U.N.’s headquarters. Over 100 protesters were arrested. Prominent figures, such as actors Susan Sarandon, Elliot Page, Hannah Einbinder and Cynthia Nixon, attended the protest. Democracy Now! spoke with some of the congressional candidates and elected officials who were there.

PROTESTERS: End the killing! Fight like hell for the living!

AMBA GUERGUERIAN: This is Darializa Avila Chevalier, a Democratic nominee for Congress from New York City.

DARIALIZA AVILA CHEVALIER: I’m here with so many New Yorkers to demand that Netanyahu be held accountable. He’s currently wanted by the ICC. And the irony is that so many New Yorkers here today will likely be the ones facing arrest, and not the person wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, before the very body that he’s set to speak in front of.

AMBA GUERGUERIAN: This is Chris Rabb, a Democratic nominee for Congress from Philadelphia.

REP. CHRIS RABB: We’ve got to speak up. And for those of us who are going to Congress, we have a responsibility to speak up for all those folks who are on the right side of history but do not have enough people in Congress holding people like him to account. We are complicit in those atrocities. We are funding that genocide. We are showing up on the frontlines, letting people know we see them, we care, we stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and all over the Middle East who are victims of this extraordinary regime that’s working with Israel, because I’m talking about the Trump regime, and I’m talking about all those complicit in this genocide. We have to speak up. We have to acknowledge and affirm that Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. He should be in The Hague, not the U.N.

AMBA GUERGUERIAN: This is Aber Kawas, a Democratic nominee for New York State Senate.

ABER KAWAS: I’m here today because Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the architect of a genocide that has been going on over three years of the Palestinian people, feels entitled enough to be welcomed onto the world stage, and we are letting him know that he is not welcome in New York.

PROTESTERS: Netanyahu, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!

AMBA GUERGUERIAN: This is Stefanie Fox, the executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace.

STEFANIE FOX: I’m the executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace. And we are here as Netanyahu makes his way to the U.N., an institution built to prevent the exact atrocities he’s perpetrating right this minute.

HANA ELIAS: These people risking arrest to make that point.

STEFANIE FOX: It’s the very least we can do in this moment, as this three years of genocide rages on, backed fully by U.S. government. And the complicity starts right here in the U.S. It’s absolutely our responsibility to demand that that impunity end and be replaced with accountability.

PROTESTERS: [singing] Rebel against the war they sell!

AMY GOODMAN: Thanks to Amba Guerguerian and Hana Elias for that report outside the United Nations.

At least 104 people were arrested, including nine elected officials and congressional and other candidates. Arrests included Democratic congressional nominee Darializa Avila Chevalier, actor Hannah Einbinder, author Glennon Doyle, whistleblower Chelsea Manning, Democratic state senator nominee Aber Kawas and Democratic state Assemblymember David Orkin. Over 20 New York city and state representatives participated in the demonstrations.