On the morning that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to speak to the United Nations General Assembly, the stretch of First Avenue leading to the glinting green Secretariat building along the East River was quiet. LinkNYC screens along the sidewalk displayed what appeared to be AI-generated images of the Manhattan skyline behind bold text: “Iranian delegates, thinking of a shopping spree? Back home, your people can’t even buy groceries.” Smaller print at the bottom of the frame read: “Paid for by the State of Israel.” 

Around noon, the calm was punctured by a disruption that has become somewhat frequent in New York City over the last three years of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. A group of seemingly unrelated individuals coalesced in an instant, forming a crowd to block traffic and unveiling identical T-shirts reading: “Jews Say Fund People Not Bombs.” Some 400 New Yorkers sat down in the center of the road and unfurled red and white banners reading “End the genocide,” and “Fund healthcare, not warfare.” A few of them raised a massive white kite, a reference to Netanyahu’s threat last month to escalate attacks on Gaza over the alleged launching of paper kites. 

“We’re here to say no to allowing a platform for someone like Netanyahu in a city that is filled with hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers that are against genocide,” said Sumaya Awad, a member of New York City-DSA and director of strategy for the Adalah Justice Project. The action, led by Jewish Voice for Peace, was supported by a coalition of other organizations including the Palestinian Youth Movement, Sunrise Movement, and Rabbis for Ceasefire. Among the crowd of New Yorkers risking arrest were local, state, and federal elected officials and Democratic congressional nominees who have made support for Palestine a centerpiece of their politics. 

“The deep irony is that the person with the arrest warrant for their crimes against humanity is not the one that will be facing arrest today, but the people who are calling for an end to US taxpayer dollars funding that,” said Darializa Avila Chevalier, the democratic socialist and likely next congressperson for New York’s 13th congressional district.

Avila Chevalier was flanked by other Democratic congressional nominees who have pledged to oppose US funding for Israel in office, including New York’s Brad Lander, Colorado’s Melat Kiros, Pennsylvania’s Chris Rabb, and New Jersey’s Dr. Adam Hamawy. “There are people who are risking their safety who are here,” Rabb said. “We’re starting to let them know that their power will be reflected in Congress in January.” 

Over 20 New York city and state representatives joined the mass civil disobedience, including State Senator Jabari Brisport, State Assemblymembers Emily Gallagher and Diana Moreno, and State Senate nominee Aber Kawas, who is set to become the first Palestinian-American to win state office in New York. 

Also seated among the crowd was a sizable roster of celebrities and other public officials, a sign of the growing numbers of people willing to speak out in an industry that has been hostile to public expressions of support for Palestine. Actors who have become regulars at JVP’s acts of civil disobedience in recent years, like Susan Sarandon, Cynthia Nixon, and Hannah Einbinder, were joined by actor Elliot Page, comedians Caleb Hearon and Mary Beth Barone, Boygenius members Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, and whistleblower and former political prisoner Chelsea Manning. 

“We want the genocide to stop. We want the killing to stop. We want the United States to stop arming Israel. We want them to stop bombing Lebanon. We want them to stop bombing Iran,” Nixon told me. “We want Palestinians to be free and to be safe and have hopes and dreams for the future.” 

Within ten minutes of the protesters assembling, NYPD officers on bikes began riding up to the scene, and soon assembled a sizable police presence. (As Politico reported, the officers were part of the Strategic Response Group, a notorious NYPD unit that New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani vowed to disband—a vow he has yet to follow through on.) After around one hour of blockaded traffic, police began arresting over 104 participants, including Avila Chevalier, New York City Councilmembers Alexa Avilés, Chi Ossé, and Emily Gallagher, and celebrities including Manning, Einbinder, and Sarandon. As they were loaded onto NYPD buses, other members of the protest cheered and sang. 

Many of the rank-and-file JVP members among the crowd have been arrested several times over the past few years while participating in the group’s acts of civil disobedience. “It feels so powerful. We see our numbers continue to grow. Increasing numbers of public figures are willing to take the risk of standing up,” said Danny Kaplowitz, a Jewish New Yorker who works in the labor movement. “We are not willing to let it go on with our tax dollars funding it and American bombs falling on Gazans without standing up and putting our bodies on the line to make it end.”