Susan Sarandon smiled and tilted her face toward the sky as NYPD officers secured her wrists outside the United Nations.
The 79-year-old actress was caught in Thursday’s sweep of entertainers, local officials and demonstrators outside the U.N., where Benjamin Netanyahu’s General Assembly address later drew walkouts, boos and pro-Palestine chants.
Sarandon was photographed near First Avenue as police restrained her, three years after she was jailed during a protest at the New York state Capitol in Albany.
The actress had already faced professional fallout in 2023 over her pro-Palestine comments.
Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder handcuffed at Netanyahu protests outside NYC U.N.
🎥: https://t.co/EfLFqnJy03 pic.twitter.com/i9rECbv8gR
— TMZ (@TMZ) September 24, 2026
“Hacks” actress Hannah Einbinder, 31, was also among the performers arrested, and she and Sarandon both wore white T-shirts reading, “fund people not bombs.”
Comedian and rising actor Caleb Hearon, 31, was also seen near police as New York City political figures joined the demonstration.
Darializa Avila Chevalier (D-NY), a socialist House candidate and the Democratic nominee for New York’s 13th Congressional District, was arrested there as well.
"Hacks" star Hannah Einbinder was arrested by the NYPD at an anti-Israel protest ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's UNGA address. 🎥: Steven Vago pic.twitter.com/QSGMh5PhSa
— New York Post (@nypost) September 24, 2026
“Darializa was just arrested while peacefully protesting Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations,” her campaign account posted Thursday afternoon.
The account accused the U.S. government of having “unlimited funds to arm a genocide against Palestinians” while telling Americans “there’s nothing left to feed and house our own people. Stop arming Israel!” the post said.
Video of the moment congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, New York City Council Member Chi Ossé and comedian Caleb Hearon were arrested by NYPD while protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's UNGA speech today. pic.twitter.com/Oe5OEb5t2A
— Shannon Ryan (@_shanryan) September 24, 2026
City Council members Chi Ossé and Alexa Avilés were also arrested, according to City & State.
Avila Chevalier later defended being at the protest and argued that Netanyahu belonged before international authorities instead of at the U.N. in New York.
“Netanyahu belongs at the Hague, not in the streets of New York City, and certainly not addressing the United Nations General Assembly,” she said in a statement reported by Bloomberg.
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By midday, socialist groups and Jewish Voice for Peace had joined demonstrators near 1st Avenue and 39th Street in Manhattan to protest Netanyahu’s war in Gaza and the conflict involving Iran.
City & State New York counted about 250 people at the protest site.
The police action started when people seated in the road stayed there after orders to leave, and outlets put the arrest total at roughly 80 to 100.
The demonstrators chanted “free Palestine,” “stop arming Israel” and “let Iran live.”
Within the first hour, officers were fastening zip-ties around protesters’ wrists as the crowd u, “Netanyahu, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D-NY) had urged Netanyahu’s arrest before the visit, saying the U.S. should act on an International Criminal Court warrant for the Israeli prime minister.
Netanyahu is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Gaza, though the U.S. is not a member of the court and New York City has no authority to arrest him.
Outside, protesters were being zip-tied. Inside, Netanyahu was met by diplomats leaving their seats, boos from the hall and chants that interrupted his speech.
The Israeli prime minister rejected the Gaza genocide allegations from the podium and called them “the biggest lie of the century.”
“If there are any other moral cowards who haven’t left this hall, please do so now,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu tied Israel’s military campaign to Iran by saying some governments represented by departing delegates had privately thanked Israel for striking Iranian nuclear targets.
“Now, you want to hear the ultimate irony?” Netanyahu said. “In defending itself, Israel is also defending many of the countries whose delegates just left this hall. In fact, I want you to know that many of the leaders even thanked us privately for taking out Iran’s nukes.”
Netanyahu labeled that response “mind blowing hypocrisy.”
“It’s hard to imagine more mind blowing hypocrisy, but that’s exactly what it is,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister aimed one of his longer attacks at the protesters outside and the diplomats who exited the chamber.
“To the protesters outside, to the hypocritical delegates who left this hall. I ask, ‘Where were you when the Iranian tyrants butchered and maimed tens of thousands of unarmed Iranian civilians? When they butchered and maimed thousands of their own people? Where were you?’” Netanyahu said.
He accused them of failing to hold rallies, hunger strikes or protests outside the Iranian mission to the U.N., and of failing to speak out for Christians persecuted in Iran and throughout the Middle East.
“No, no, you didn’t, because you’re phony human rights protesters,” Netanyahu said.
Mamdani’s push to have Netanyahu arrested also entered the speech when the Israeli leader referred to “the office of the antisemitic mayor of New York.”
“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!” Netanyahu said.
“Mr. Mamdani, you try to stop me from coming here. You try to silence me. Well, you can’t silence me,” Netanyahu continued.
Netanyahu denied claims from Mamdani and other critics that Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The Israeli leader described his country as fighting Palestinian attacks in the West Bank, “militias” in Syria, the Houthis in Yemen, Iranian forces and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“For the past three years, our heroic soldiers have fought day in and day out in a seven front war. Do you know any other country the size of New Jersey capable of fighting a seven front war?” Netanyahu asked.
He said Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran, militias in Iraq and Syria, and Palestinian terrorists in Judea and Samaria had tried to wipe Israel out.
“They failed,” Netanyahu added, “because instead of collapsing, we delivered crippling blows to all of them, with our great American friends.”