Massive Protests Erupt in New York City as Thousands Decry Netanyahu’s U.N. Address

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday morning, the streets of New York City pulsed with a powerful counter-message from thousands of protesters who had gathered to make their voices heard. The day began with an early morning convergence in Times Square, located just across town from the U.N. building. Amidst a sea of passionate faces, many young, Palestinian flags proudly waved. Demonstrators held aloft signs emblazoned with stark demands like ‘End All U.S. Aid to Israel,’ ‘Arrest Netanyahu,’ and ‘Stop Starving Gaza Now!’ A roaring cheer erupted from the crowd when organizers announced that numerous heads of state had staged a mass walkout from the General Assembly chamber during Netanyahu’s speech. The air filled with a resounding chant: ‘Netanyahu, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!’ By approximately 10:15 a.m., after Netanyahu had concluded his address, roughly 2,000 protesters, according to police estimates, began their march towards the U.N. They filled 42nd Street, New York’s iconic thoroughfare, before proceeding uptown, necessitating the closure of several blocks of Sixth Avenue. Beyond Netanyahu, the protesters fiercely criticized America’s ongoing support for Israel. David Robinson, a 64-year-old from Brooklyn, expressed his anguish: ‘Trump administration officials don’t care about the death of brown people who are Palestinians, and they’re not considered human beings. We are watching this going on. It breaks my heart. And I don’t know why everybody isn’t here.’ Netanyahu’s arrival in New York on Thursday was also met with protests. Late that night, near his Upper East Side hotel, the Loews Regency, 14 individuals were arrested and issued summonses for unreasonable noise during a ‘No Sleep for Netanyahu’ demonstration. Across the United States, college campuses and major cities have become stages for frequent demonstrations against the Israeli government and in solidarity with Palestinian rights. These protests surged following Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel, which initiated the siege of Gaza. Health officials report over 60,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza, with widespread starvation now gripping the territory. Meanwhile, Israel continues to flatten areas of Gaza City with incessant bombing campaigns. A recent poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena University revealed shifting sentiments in New York City, which hosts the largest Jewish population outside Israel. The findings indicated that only 26% of registered voters expressed more sympathy for Israel, while a significant 44% sympathized more with Palestinians. Charles Hamlin, 63, traveled all the way from New Orleans to join the march, voicing profound frustration with what he perceived as American apathy. ‘I just am so frustrated with the apathy of Americans — putting on blinders, choosing to be willfully ignorant to feel not complicit in the situation,’ he stated. Highlighting that Netanyahu faces war crimes charges from the International Criminal Court, Hamlin emphasized that the Prime Minister ‘should not be able to come to New York City and lobby the U.N., Congress or anyone else to try to stave off the two-state solution or try to stave off a cease-fire.’ Adding another layer of dissent, some demonstrators also directed their protests at New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who notably remained present during Netanyahu’s speech, even as many other world leaders exited the assembly. Aaron Kirshenbaum, 24, from Brooklyn, labeled Mayor Adams’ decision to allow Netanyahu into New York as ‘absolutely egregious.’ He pointed out that Zohran Mamdani, a frontrunner in November’s mayoral election, has publicly pledged to honor the International Criminal Court’s warrant, vowing to order the police to arrest Netanyahu should he enter the city. The scene at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, a park directly opposite the U.N., saw a tense confrontation. A small group of pro-Israel counterprotesters, waving Israeli and American flags, clashed verbally with a few pro-Palestine demonstrators. Police officers formed a line between the two factions as they exchanged insults. Following the main protest, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who had this week proposed to the General Assembly the formation of an international army to liberate Palestine, spoke to the gathered demonstrators in the plaza. President Petro highlighted that the previous week, the United States had vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding a permanent cease-fire in Gaza for the sixth time, leading him to declare, ‘diplomacy ended.’ He concluded with a potent statement: ‘Human history has shown us throughout millennia that when diplomacy is finished, we must move on to another phase of the struggle.’