Actor Hannah Einbinder has posted a statement online saying the world’s attention should be on Gaza and not on the “spectacle” of her arrest at a protest outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the UN earlier this week.
“If the pictures of my friends and me getting arrested in protest of Netanyahu’s shameful visit to New York draw attention to anything, let it be to the devastating genocidal war Israel is waging against the people of Palestine and Southern Lebanon,” Einbinder wrote on her Instagram story, where she also criticized the U.S. for its continued support of Israel.
“Let us not mistake the spectacle for the story: genocide is the headline, and it is time for it to end.”
Actors Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder were among more than 100 protesters detained in New York City on Thursday as Netanyahu delivered a speech to the United Nations General Assembly.
Photos showed Sarandon, 79, and Einbinder, 31, in handcuffs being taken away by police, with the former wearing a shirt that said “fund people not bombs.” Comedian Caleb Hearon, Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier and New York City council member Chi Osse were also arrested.
CBC News has contacted both actors’ representatives for comment.
Actor Susan Sarandon was detained by police in New York on Thursday during a protest demanding an end to U.S. arms support for Israel. Officers detained Sarandon near the U.N. headquarters, along with another demonstrator whose wrists were secured with zip ties.
Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters gathered near the United Nations before Netanyahu’s speech, with dozens blocking traffic and chanting: “Stop arming Israel, let Gaza live” and “Stop arming Israel, let Iran live.” The rally was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, a Jewish activist group supporting Palestinians.
The activist group said in a statement on Instagram that more than 100 people had been arrested during the protest.
“Over 400 people held a mass sit-in outside the UN demanding an end to the genocide and an end to U.S. military funding to Israel,” the group said. “We refuse to stand by while war criminals are given a platform to speak and while our government spends billions on war.”
Canadian actor Elliot Page, who was also at the protest, shared the statement on his account.
Amnesty International and a UN inquiry have found that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a genocide. Israel vehemently denies this charge.
In his address, Netanyahu again rejected the accusations of genocide, saying Israeli’s military operation in Gaza was aimed at Hamas.
“Here’s the simple truth. Israel didn’t commit genocide. Israel prevented genocide,” he said.
He said Israel has tried to reduce civilian casualties by issuing warnings to evacuate ahead of strikes and has provided humanitarian assistance to the population throughout the war.
“What genocidal regime gives a million polio vaccinations to the enemy’s population? What genocidal regime enables the distribution of two million tons of food into Gaza?”
Israel has repeatedly denied or delayed aid requests, including as a pressure tactic during ceasefire negotiations. It has also accused Hamas of siphoning supplies.
Amid reports of mass starvation in Gaza in 2025, Prime Minister Mark Carney called for Israel to relinquish control over the dispensing of aid to international organizations, calling its denial of humanitarian aid to Palestinians a “violation of international law.”
Aid groups have also accused the country of breaking humanitarian law by barring more than 30 international non-profits from dispensing aid in Gaza at the end of last year, which the country said was due to security concerns.
Delegates walk out
Dozens of delegates stood up and walked out of the UN hall when Netanyahu began his speech to the meeting of world leaders.
Describing those members as “moral cowards,” Netanyahu asked anyone else who felt the same way to leave the room before he started to speak. His supporters in the gallery chanted in Hebrew: “The people of Israel live.”
Netanyahu faces an election next month widely seen as a referendum on his responsibility for the security failures surrounding the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and his ability to defend Israel’s reputation on the world stage.
Day after day this week, as other heads of state have stepped to the UN podium, many have harshly criticized Israel’s actions, particularly in Gaza.
Ahead of his visit, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the U.S. should honour a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest issued by the International Criminal Court.
The prime minister 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 lacks the authority to make an arrest.
Earlier on Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the assembly through pre-recorded remarks from his office in Ramallah after the United States denied him and other top Palestinian officials visas to attend the gathering for the second year in a row.
“The Palestinian people face one of the most dangerous times in its history,” Abbas said, citing long-term military occupation in the West Bank and the war in Gaza.
Israel, he said, “has targeted all of the basic necessities of life.”
CBC’s visual investigations team uncovers new satellite imagery that shows the IDF removing rubble from sites in Gaza that it bombed, which experts and human rights advocates warn risks destroying evidence of alleged war crimes. Families in Gaza interviewed by CBC say this activity prevents them from retrieving the bodies of loved ones trapped under the rubble.
Einbinder said it was an “indictment” of both Republican and Democratic leaders that Netanyahu was permitted to enter the U.S. and appear in front of the United Nations.
“The U.S. government has the power to bring an end to all of this killing, pillaging and land theft, yet instead it chooses to welcome the butcher of Gaza with open arms,” she wrote.
As international criticism of Israel mounts, the U.S. has remained a staunch supporter. The U.S. is planning to sell Israel a munitions package worth $2.8 billion US, including thousands of 2,000 pound bombs, according to recent reporting by Reuters and the Washington Post.
Israeli officials have spoken openly about removing two million Palestinians from Gaza in a plan widely condemned as potentially ethnic cleansing, with Defence Minister Israel Katz stating earlier this month that they’re waiting for U.S. approval for the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians in Gaza “by any means.”
