Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested near UN headquarters during Netanyahu's General Assembly speech

Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested near UN headquarters in Manhattan on Thursday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the General Assembly, according to RT’s Caleb Maupin, reporting from the scene.

Demonstrators blocked an intersection several blocks from the UN building in a planned act of civil disobedience timed to coincide with Netanyahu’s speech, Maupin said.

RT footage showed protesters holding signs reading “stop settler terror” and “stop arming Israel.” Demonstrators also chanted “Netanyahu you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide” and “One, two, three, four, Gaza’s what we’re fighting for.”

“The protesters are expecting to be arrested. This is a planned act of civil disobedience timed with the Israeli prime minister’s upcoming speech,” Maupin said.

Another video showed detained protesters being loaded into an NYPD van. Some wore shirts bearing the slogan “fund people not bombs.”

US attitudes toward Israel have grown more negative in recent years, according to opinion polls. Some 62% of American adults had an unfavorable view of the Israeli government in May 2026, up from 43% in 2022, according to a Pew Research Center survey published in July. The share with a favorable view of Israel fell by 15 percentage points over the same period.

Israel’s actions in Gaza and the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank have also drawn international criticism.

“Settler violence has reached unprecedented levels,” senior UN official Ramiz Alakbarov told the Security Council last month.

The UN had documented more than 1,430 settler incidents resulting in casualties or property damage in the occupied West Bank this year as of August 10, affecting around 260 Palestinian communities, he said.

More than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect in October 2025, bringing the total death toll since October 2023 to nearly 74,000, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.