Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the anti-war group Code Pink, led hundreds of protesters outside United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday to denounce Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s General Assembly address, demanding he face prosecution for alleged war crimes at The Hague.

Benjamin told Anadolu that she was “so shocked and disgusted that the United Nations even allows the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before it,” adding that his hands are “dripping in blood.” She stated that demonstrators represent the global community insisting Netanyahu “should be in The Hague facing war crimes” rather than addressing the UN.

Arrests cap New York rally

More than 100 people participated in the demonstration, including Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon and New York congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, both of whom were handcuffed by New York police during the event. Some demonstrators wore T-shirts reading “Fund people not bombs,” while others waved banners demanding the US stop arming Israel and cease bombing Iran, Lebanon and Palestine.

Israeli peace activists join demands

Chevalier wrote on social media platform X that the government has “unlimited funds to arm a genocide against Palestinians but tells us there’s nothing left to feed and house our own people.” At a separate protest near UN headquarters, Tamara Gayer of the group Israelis for Peace told Anadolu that Netanyahu “should not be given this public platform.” She noted that while he is not the sole cause of the conflict, he remains a major actor preventing the land between the Jordan River and the sea from thriving, as the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the premier in November 2024.