A socialist House candidate ended up in handcuffs outside the United Nations while Benjamin Netanyahu stood inside and called protesters against Israel “phony human rights protesters.”
Darializa Avila Chevalier (D-NY), the Democratic nominee for New York’s 13th Congressional District, was arrested Thursday as demonstrators gathered in Manhattan over the Israeli prime minister’s arrival for the United Nations General Assembly meeting.
Her campaign account framed the arrest as part of the opposition to Netanyahu’s appearance before the international body.
“Darializa was just arrested while peacefully protesting Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations,” the campaign posted Thursday afternoon.
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
The account also accused Washington of spending “unlimited funds to arm a genocide against Palestinians” while claiming “there’s nothing left to feed and house our own people.”
“Stop arming Israel!” the post said.
The crowd gathered at 1st Avenue and 39th Street in Manhattan and numbered about 250 people, City & State New York reported.
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The arrests began after demonstrators refused to leave the roadway where they were sitting, according to the outlet.
Avila Chevalier was part of a larger group placed under arrest, with outlets reporting that roughly 80 to 100 people were taken into custody after refusing orders to clear out.
City & State also named City Council members Chi Ossé and Alexa Avilés among the public officials arrested there.
Avila Chevalier stood by the protest after her arrest and argued that Netanyahu should have been in international custody rather than in Manhattan.
“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.
Netanyahu arrived in New York with an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him still attached to his visit.
The body accused him of facilitating war crimes tied to Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, which followed Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel.
Several delegates left the hall as Netanyahu spoke, while the Israeli leader used the podium to answer boycotting diplomats, demonstrators outside and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D-NY).
Netanyahu started with Iran and defended Israel’s strike on the country’s nuclear facilities as a matter of survival.
“Devastating Iran’s nuclear facilities was hard, it was very hard to do, but for me, it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make as prime minister,” Netanyahu said. “Because if we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead.”
He told the chamber that some governments whose delegates walked out had also benefited from Israel’s attack on Iran.
“Now, you want to hear the ultimate irony?” Netanyahu asked. “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 called that “mind blowing hypocrisy” and framed Israel’s war as a fight against “barbarians.”
“On that darkest of days, our enemies expected us to collapse,” Netanyahu said. “Well, we didn’t collapse. Instead, we rose and fought like lions for the past three years. Our heroic soldiers have fought day in and day out in a seven-front war.”
After Netanyahu urged “moral cowards” to leave with the diplomats who had already boycotted him, members of the Israeli delegation cheered and chanted in Hebrew.
“The people of Israel live,” they chanted.
Mamdani became one of Netanyahu’s direct targets after the mayor had called for the U.S. to act on the ICC arrest warrant when the Israeli prime minister entered the country for the U.N. meeting.
“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.
Netanyahu then addressed the mayor by name. “Mr. Mamdani, you try to stop me from coming here. You try to silence me. Well, you can’t silence me,” Netanyahu said.
The Israeli leader rejected allegations from Mamdani and other critics that Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Netanyahu named several fronts where he said Israel has been forced to defend itself, including 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 listed Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran, militias in Iraq and Syria, and Palestinian terrorists in Judea and Samaria as enemies that had tried to destroy Israel.
“They failed,” Netanyahu said, “because instead of collapsing, we delivered crippling blows to all of them, with our great American friends.”
From the U.N. stage, Netanyahu also answered the demonstrators gathered outside the building.
“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 the same critics of failing to hold rallies, hunger strikes or demonstrations at the Iranian mission to the U.N., and of ignoring Christians persecuted in Iran and across the Middle East.
“No, no, you didn’t, because you’re phony human rights protesters,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu also pointed to “the war for truth,” describing it as a fight playing out in world media and on social media.
He closed with praise for President Donald Trump over U.S. action against Iran.
“We’ve had no greater partner than President Trump,” Netanyahu said. “I thank him. I thank him for his bold leadership. He boldly confronted an enormous danger to America, Israel and the world.”
Netanyahu said Trump understood that Iranian leaders who chant “Death to America, death to Israel” would eventually act on those threats if left unchecked.
“So, Israel and America acted together not only to protect ourselves, but to save civilization,” Netanyahu said.
