Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon and Hacks star Hannah Einbinder were among people detained by police in New York on Thursday as they moved in to break up a protest against Benjamin Netanyahu.
Agence France-Presse footage shows NYPD officers cuffing Thelma & Louise star Sarandon at the demo in the city as the Israeli prime minister was readying to address the United Nations general assembly.
The New York Post reported Einbinder had also been marched away from the demonstration organised by Jewish Voice for Peace, where protesters held banners that read “Stop Arming Israel” and “End the Genocide.”
A spokesperson for the NYPD said officers had responded to reports of an “unscheduled demonstration” where people were blocking an intersection.
“Members of the NYPD Community Affairs Bureau issued … warnings, advising participants that they should leave,” the spokesperson said.
“They continued to block the intersection. Multiple individuals who didn’t comply were taken into custody,” she said, without providing the number of people arrested.
Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier and New York City council member Chi Ossé were also among those arrested.
Inside the general assembly, dozens of envoys from across the world walked out as Netanyahu began his speech, where he assailed both enemies and allies that have crossed him in recent months, including Britain and France, which have recently moved to recognise the state of Palestine.
“They accuse Israel, tiny Israel, of colonialism – some colonialism. And who’s accusing us? Among them are people in Britain and in France. For God’s sakes, they invented the term,” he told the assembly.
Sarandon, whose movie hits also include The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dead Man Walking and The Witches of Eastwick, is no stranger to protests over Israel’s war in Gaza.
The US actor told journalists at the Venice film festival this month she was losing work because of her outspoken views.
“I’ve still had movies taken away recently because there are agencies that are telling people not to hire me still. But that’s the power structure,” she said.
“I think there has been a change in terms of the understanding of the situation and the general public, but there are still very strongly held positions within my industry that are held by Zionists and who have not relaxed their feelings towards me.
“But I found my family, I found my people, and I’m OK,” she added.
Einbinder has previously said the cost of not speaking up about Palestine is greater than losing her Hollywood career, citing industry backlash to actors such as Sarandon and Melissa Barrera.
“I think what they know is what I know, which is that the cost of not speaking is higher,” she told Cannes film festival earlier this year.
“There is a greater toll in not speaking and you’ve just got to have your priorities straight. I am under no impression that my small career could ever measure up in comparison to even one human life. It’s an obligation and I will always do it.”
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
