Sarandon, Einbinder Detained at Anti-Netanyahu UN Protest

Susan Sarandon spent part of Thursday afternoon in zip ties. The award-winning actor was detained by New York police alongside Hacks star Hannah Einbinder during a sit-in on First Avenue, blocks from United Nations headquarters, hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the General Assembly, according to CNN.

The NYPD said it took one hundred three people into custody while breaking up the demonstration. Footage from the scene showed officers fastening the actors' hands with zip ties and directing them toward a police bus, CNN reported.

What happened outside the UN

The anti-Netanyahu UN protest was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, a human rights organization that advocates for Palestinian rights. The group said it staged the sit-in to call on the world to stop arming Israel and to end what it described as the genocide in Gaza. Demonstrators wore shirts reading "Fund people not bombs" and carried signs saying "Stop arming Israel" and "End the genocide," according to CNN.

Jewish Voice for Peace said on X that hundreds of people joined the sit-in outside the UN complex. The organization said it refused to stay silent while, in its words, "war criminals are given a platform to speak" and while the US government spends billions on war, IOL reported.

A CNN team on the ground reported a heavy police presence and said the demonstrators remained peaceful but blocked traffic. Officers arrived shortly after midday and warned the crowd to clear the street; when a group stayed seated in the roadway, police began detaining them in the early afternoon, CNN reported.

An NYPD spokesperson described the gathering as an "unscheduled demonstration" blocking an intersection, saying officers from the Community Affairs Bureau issued warnings before taking demonstrators who did not comply into custody, IOL reported.

The protest was not the only one: PIX11 reported several demonstrations were planned against Netanyahu during his New York visit, according to USA Today.

Who was in the street

The detained included comedian Caleb Hearon, author Glennon Doyle, New York congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, and former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, according to Jewish Voice for Peace. Also at the demonstration were actor and activist Cynthia Nixon, playwright Tony Kushner, photographer Nan Goldin, poet Eileen Myles, and congressional candidate Brad Lander, CNN reported. Consequence reported that boygenius members Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, Elliot Page, and Saturday Night Live cast member Sarah Sherman attended as well.

Einbinder, who is Jewish, yelled "Free Palestine! Get Netanyahu out of New York" as officers escorted her from the protest, according to Consequence, which cited The Times. Videos of Einbinder with her hands zip-tied behind her back circulated on social media, the Hindustan Times reported.

Why the famous faces change the story

Sarandon has said her activism already cost her work. Earlier this month, she told reporters at the Venice Film Festival that films had been "taken away recently" because of her political beliefs, according to USA Today. Being detained on camera days after saying that attaches vivid footage to the claim: the images from the avenue will follow it wherever it is repeated.

Einbinder's presence carried its own weight. She is among the most visible young Jewish voices in Hollywood speaking out about Gaza, and her arrest at a demonstration organized by a Jewish-led group complicates the simplest framings of the protest. Her shout as police led her away was caught on the videos circulating from the scene.

There is a familiar pattern here for anyone raised on the feed: famous people converting cultural capital into protest. GenZ NewZ has covered how political creators now fill social feeds with paid messaging; Thursday's sit-in was the unpaid, offline version, with recognizable faces putting their bodies in the street instead of just their names on a statement.

What happened inside the building

While police cleared the avenue, Netanyahu took the podium for the eighty-first session of the General Assembly. Delegates from nearly every country walked out as he began speaking, according to Consequence. Netanyahu answered by calling the delegations "moral cowards," USA Today reported.

The walkout and the arrests landed in the same news cycle as a tense UNGA week. Days earlier, police made arrests at a separate New York protest ahead of President Donald Trump's address to the assembly, USA Today reported. For background on that speech, see our earlier coverage of Trump's UNGA remarks on Iran.

Thursday also revived an earlier flashpoint. Earlier this year, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he would order the NYPD to arrest Netanyahu under a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in November 2024, then acknowledged he lacked the legal authority to do so, according to Consequence. On Thursday afternoon, Mamdani posted a video of himself planting an olive tree with Palestinian families from Gaza.

The sit-in ended with the street cleared and the police buses gone, leaving behind footage of two actors in zip ties and a General Assembly hall emptying as Netanyahu spoke.