Sarandon arrest at UN exposes state power shielding impunity

By Aoife Gallagher · Reporting from Dublin ·

Police arrested Susan Sarandon and other protesters outside the United Nations, exposing how powerful states protect impunity while civil society demands justice.

The velvet handcuffs of the culture industry

Power in New York is an orderly thing. It keeps its sidewalks swept, its UN motorcades shielded, and its dissent managed until it spills across a curb. On Thursday, that order frayed on First Avenue, a few blocks from United Nations headquarters. The New York City Police Department took 103 people into custody during an unscheduled sit-in. Among them were actors Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder. They were detained alongside comedian Caleb Hearon, author Glennon Doyle, congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, and former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. They wore shirts stating "Fund people not bombs." They held banners demanding that the world stop arming Israel and end the genocide in Gaza.

As reported by CNN and The Guardian, the demonstration was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace. The human rights organization advocates for Palestinian rights. Police officers arrived, issued warnings to clear the street, and watched as approximately 30 people remained. By 1 p.m., the arrests began. Sarandon told journalists at the Venice film festival that she has lost movie roles because agencies tell people not to hire her. The handcuffs were a familiar punctuation mark to a life of political dissent. She was arrested in 2018 at the Hart Senate Office Building during protests against migrant family separations. Her presence outside the UN was not a fleeting celebrity stunt. It was part of a decades-long commitment to radical anti-war politics. Small careers weigh nothing against human lives.

Hannah Einbinder, the Emmy-winning star of Hacks, echoed that sentiment. She noted that the cost of not speaking up is higher than any professional toll. As noted by NPR and Al Jazeera, the protest unfolded ahead of a major address. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the United Nations General Assembly's 81st session. Netanyahu raged inside against his critics and accused Jewish groups protesting outside of demonising him. Diplomats walked out of the General Assembly hall in droves. The institution in Turtle Bay could offer speeches. The people on the asphalt paid the price for the world's cowardice.

The institutional theatre of impunity

To understand why 103 people were bundled into police vans outside the UN, one must map the leverage. The Israeli government denies accusations of genocide. It maintains its war in Gaza is waged in self-defense and in accordance with international law. Yet an independent UN inquiry in 2025 found that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galland for war crimes. The United States is not a member of the ICC. Washington provides the diplomatic and military shield that keeps the bombs flowing. Netanyahu can step onto New York soil and dismiss the court's warrants as absurd and antisemitic. He can attack local leaders who dare to invoke international law.

This dynamic echoes the 2014 Gaza War. International promises of protection for the periphery were casually brushed aside by a state backed by a superpower. When the UN fails to enforce its own resolutions, transnational civil society steps into the vacuum. The Anti-Apartheid Movement used public visibility and moral pressure to isolate South Africa's system of institutionalized racial oppression. Jewish Voice for Peace and its allies are using direct action to break the silence. Netanyahu complained from the podium about why protesters had not demonstrated when Iranian security forces killed demonstrators in January. He was attempting a classic deflection. He wants the world to look everywhere else. He wants to hide the weapons supplied by the West and the blood spilled in Gaza.

The police response outside the UN bore all the hallmarks of Occupy Wall Street. Local law enforcement was deployed to clear unscheduled demonstrations that disrupt global political and financial elites. The state protects the motorcade and punishes the sit-in. The artists and activists took the pavement on First Avenue. They understand that solidarity cannot be quarantined by studio blacklists or municipal paddy wagons. When millions face destruction, the only true safety lies in refusing to look away.

The unyielding price of solidarity

The opposing case insists that public demonstrations near high-security diplomatic gatherings pose an intolerable threat to public order. It claims they threaten democratic governance. In this view, foreign leaders must address international bodies without unlawful street blockades. Police forces have a plain duty to enforce traffic laws and maintain civic peace regardless of political passions.

This argument collapses the moment one looks at the balance of violence. Order without justice is merely tyranny with a clean pavement. The protesters blocking First Avenue were not disrupting traffic for sport. They were demanding an end to a war that has slaughtered tens of thousands of Palestinians, reduced neighborhoods to ash, and defied international law. International courts issue arrest warrants for war crimes, but powerful capitals shield the accused. The street becomes the only remaining parliament for human conscience.

Susan Sarandon, Hannah Einbinder, and their fellow detainees did not choose arrest lightly. They chose it because the alternative is complicity in slaughter. The 2010 Gaza Flotilla raid proved this reality. Official institutions will temporize and hedge while small nations and occupied peoples are crushed. The moral weight of the world does not rest with diplomats walking out of assembly halls. It rests with the citizens who sit down on the asphalt and refuse to move until the killing stops.

Sources

  1. CNN: Susan Sarandon, Hannah Einbinder among more than 100 detained during anti-Netanyahu protest outside UN
  2. Al Jazeera: Netanyahu’s UN belligerence wins cheers at home as world walks out
  3. NPR: Netanyahu rages against critics, including Mamdani, at the U.N. General Assembly
  4. The Guardian: Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder arrested at anti-Netanyahu protest in New York