New York police released American actresses Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder after detaining them with dozens of participants in a demonstration held outside the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan on 24 September, protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the city and his address to the United Nations General Assembly.
Jewish Voice for Peace leads United Nations protest
The Jewish Voice for Peace organisation staged the demonstration as Netanyahu prepared to deliver his address to the General Assembly. Several local politicians took part alongside Sarandon and Einbinder, while protesters held signs reading ‘Stop arming Israel’ and ‘End the genocide’.
Video footage showed the detention of Einbinder, star of the series ‘Hacks’, and Oscar-winning Sarandon. Police took 103 participants into custody and issued them summonses for disorderly conduct before releasing them shortly afterwards.
New York police explain detention of 103 protesters
A New York police spokesperson said officers acted after receiving reports of an ‘unscheduled demonstration’, after participants blocked an intersection. She added that protesters continued to block the intersection and that several people who did not comply with orders were taken into custody. After her release, Einbinder commented through the stories feature on her Instagram account on the circulation of images showing her detention with her colleagues.
She said that if images of her and her friends being arrested during the protest against what she described as Netanyahu’s ‘shameful’ visit to New York were to draw attention to anything, she hoped it would be to ‘the devastating war waged by Israel’, which she said included genocide against the Palestinian people and residents of southern Lebanon, as well as settler attacks, home demolitions and the bombing of people as they slept.
Let’s not confuse the scene with the story: genocide is the headline, and it is time to end it
Einbinder links professional positions to support for Palestine
The actress had previously spoken, while attending the Cannes Film Festival, about the professional consequences of maintaining her pro-Palestinian positions, but said she believed the cost of remaining silent on the Palestinian issue was greater than the possibility of losing her career.
Sarandon’s detention comes amid her public statements on the war in Gaza and her solidarity with Palestinians. During her attendance at the latest Venice Film Festival, she told journalists that she was still losing some work opportunities because of her outspoken positions, explaining that she had recently been removed from some films and that agencies were still asking others not to hire her.
Sarandon said she believed the public’s understanding of the situation had changed, but that deeply entrenched positions remained within the film industry among people she described as Zionists, and that they had not softened their stance towards her.
She added that, despite this, she had found her ‘family’ and the people to whom she felt she belonged, stressing that she was fine.
