Actors Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder were among about 100 protesters detained by police outside the United Nations headquarters before Binyamin Netanyahu's address to the General Assembly. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on Manhattan streets on Thursday, forcing police to close roads leading to the UN building.
Detentions during protest
Social media videos showed Sarandon and Einbinder being taken away by officers. It remains unclear whether the pair were formally arrested or merely detained. Both have previously criticised Israeli politics and voiced support for Palestine.
The protest came as dozens of delegates booed and walked out of the General Assembly when Netanyahu took the stage. Small sections of the audience, including the Israeli delegation, applauded him.
Stars' past remarks
During a speech in Cannes, Einbinder said: "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. I am under no impression that my one small career could ever measure up in comparison to even one human life. So, you know, it’s an obligation and I will always do it."
Sarandon claimed at the Venice Film Festival in September that her career had been affected by her outspokenness. She said: "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. I think within the people, certainly internationally, I feel welcome."
Netanyahu's speech
Netanyahu criticised those who left the chamber before his speech, saying: "If there are any other moral cowards who haven't yet left this hall, please do so now." He said "we'd all be dead" if Israel and the US had not attacked Iran earlier this year and devastated its "nuclear facilities", calling the attack one of the "easiest decisions I've ever had to make as prime minister".
In comments aimed at those who walked out, he accused them of "hypocrisy", saying many of their leaders "thanked us privately for taking out Iran's nukes". He denied Israel had enacted genocide on Palestinians, branding such claims "the greatest lie of the century".
More than 69,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including 17,000 children, according to figures from the British Red Cross, with a further 170,000 people injured. Netanyahu is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court on November 21, 2024, for the alleged war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and crimes against humanity including murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts during the Gaza war.
