Avila Chevalier, Ossé, Avilés arrested protesting Netanyahu

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani may not be protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations on Thursday. But other New York politicians did, with some getting arrested for blocking the road and refusing to move during the demonstration, including Democratic nominee for the 13th congressional district, Darializa Avila Chevalier, and City Council Members Chi Ossé and Alexa Avilés.

More than a dozen elected officials and candidates, including congressional nominee Brad Lander, state Sen. Jabari Brisport, City Council Members Sandy Nurse and Tiffany Cabán and Assembly Member Emily Gallagher were among the roughly 250 protesters who sat in the street at the corner of 1st Avenue and 39th Street in Manhattan. The action organized by pro-Palestinian group Jewish Voice for Peace, just blocks away from the U.N. headquarters, was meant to protest both Netanyahu’s speech at the U.N. and the United States’ aid to Israel’s military, including throughout the war in Gaza. The group was surrounded by around 100 New York City police officers, including members of the Strategic Response Group.

About an hour into the protest, officers moved in and arrested dozens of protesters who were left, including Avila Chevalier, Ossé and Avilés, without issue. According to an organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace, the total number of people arrested topped 100, and included Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez, Gallagher, and state legislative candidates Aber Kawas, Christian Celeste Tate, David Orkin and Illapa Sairitupac.

“As the Democratic Nominee for New York’s 13th Congressional District, I refuse to allow a war criminal to roam the streets of our city unchallenged,” Avila Chevalier said in a statement on her arrest shared exclusively with City & State. “I refuse to play host to a man who has overseen the slaughter or injury of more than 64,000 children in Gaza with American taxpayer dollars.” Avila Chevalier, who is virtually guaranteed to win election in her deep blue district in November, has been a vocal pro-Palestinian activist and critic of Israel. She ousted Rep. Adriano Espaillat in June’s Democratic primary. 

The electeds and protestors who joined them rained chants of “It is right to rebel, Netanyahu go to hell” in the direction of the United Nations, where Netanyahu later spoke. In his speech, Netanyahu addressed Mamdani, his vehement critic, directly. 

“Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York,” Netanyahu said. “You falsely, repeatedly accuse Israel of genocide. Mr. Mamdani, you tried to stop me from coming here. You tried to silence me. Well, you can't silence me. You can't silence the truth.”

The mayor responded to Netanyahu’s vitriolic speech with familiar scathing criticism. “As he has done time and again, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians,” Mamdani said in a statement. “Yet no lie can change the fact that he remains the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Just before Netanyahu was scheduled to speak, Mamdani posted a video on social media of him planting an olive tree at Gracie Mansion with Palestinian families from Gaza with part of the caption saying, “May peace be our future.”

Since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 in which 1,200 people were killed and hundreds taken hostage, more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Defense Forces according to the United Nations. 

Later on Thursday, the New York City chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement, in coordination with Jewish Voice for Peace and several other organizations, hosted another march that began in Bryant Park before converging with a much larger group on Fifth Avenue. 

The large crowd traveled down East 42nd Street, chanting, “Netanyahu you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.” Some signs advocated for Gaza, while other signs protested war in Iran and U.S. financial support of Israel. The group made a couple turns before stopping close to the United Nations and the Trump World Tower residential building.