Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Democratic Socialists of America-backed House nominee endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, was arrested Thursday outside the United Nations after blocking a Manhattan roadway during protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Avila Chevalier, 32, was among roughly 80 to 100 demonstrators taken into custody near the corner of 1st Avenue and 39th Street as Netanyahu arrived to address the UN General Assembly. City Council members Chi Ossé, Alexa Avilés, and Jennifer Gutiérrez were also arrested, and the New York Post reported that 104 demonstrators total were cuffed by NYPD. Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon was among those detained.
The arrest puts a fresh spotlight on the political network Mayor Mamdani has built around far-left, anti-Israel activism, and on the growing gap between the progressive coalition running New York City and the law-and-order expectations of ordinary New Yorkers.
Avila Chevalier is the Democratic nominee for New York's 13th Congressional District, which covers Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx. She defeated five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the June primary, riding a wave of DSA-aligned progressive energy. The district is heavily Democratic, making her the prohibitive favorite in November.
Her political roots run through the same anti-Israel protest movement that roiled Columbia University. She has said she helped launch Columbia University Apartheid Divest's boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign. CUAD drew scrutiny for social media posts that included "Death to America" and a call for the "eradication of Western civilization."
Mamdani endorsed Avila Chevalier in late May during an appearance on MS NOW, praising what he called her commitment to working-class New Yorkers and saying he looked forward to fighting alongside her for their shared affordability agenda. That endorsement tied the mayor directly to a candidate whose signature cause is not housing costs but opposition to U.S. support for Israel.
Her campaign wasted no time framing the arrest as a badge of honor. A post on her campaign's social media account Thursday afternoon declared:
"Darializa was just arrested while peacefully protesting Netanyahu's speech at the United Nations. Our government has unlimited funds to arm a genocide against Palestinians but tells us there's nothing left to feed and house our own people. Stop arming Israel!"
A separate statement, reported by Fox News Digital, quoted Avila Chevalier saying Netanyahu "belongs at the Hague, not in the streets of New York City, and certainly not addressing the United Nations General Assembly." Her campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
The mayor himself was not at the demonstration. While his endorsed candidate and multiple allied council members sat in the street waiting to be handcuffed, Mamdani posted a video of himself meeting with Palestinian families at Gracie Mansion, the mayoral residence. The Washington Examiner noted that Mamdani had previously called for Netanyahu to be arrested based on an International Criminal Court warrant but chose not to attend the protest.
His social media post struck a measured tone: "May peace be our future." The contrast between that careful phrasing and the conduct of his political allies, blocking traffic, getting arrested, and demanding that a visiting head of state be hauled before an international tribunal, was hard to miss.
Mamdani's decision to stay away from protests he once encouraged has drawn criticism from both sides. Pro-Israel groups see the mayor's rhetoric as reckless even without his physical presence. Progressive activists wanted him on the street.
The dynamic is not new. Mamdani has repeatedly found himself caught between the radical movement that propelled him into office and the institutional expectations of running the nation's largest city. Mourners rebuked him at Ground Zero on the 25th anniversary of September 11, and the Israeli ambassador publicly demanded his arrest ahead of Netanyahu's UN visit, a confrontation that escalated diplomatic tensions between the city and Israel.
Reuters reported that approximately 200 demonstrators blocked traffic outside UN headquarters in a protest organized by Jewish Voice for Peace. City & State New York put the crowd at roughly 250. Police moved in after protesters sitting in the roadway refused orders to disperse.
Among those arrested alongside Avila Chevalier were Emmy-winning actress Hannah Einbinder and council member Chi Ossé. Sarandon was described as "detained", a distinction the sources did not explain. Beth Phillips, a Netanyahu supporter quoted by the New York Post, pointed to the broader political stakes: "His people that he surrounds himself with praised 9/11. Jews are in danger. We are at risk."
NYPD directed Fox News Digital to its public information phone line and declined to provide additional details. No specific charges against any of the arrested individuals were disclosed.
That silence leaves basic questions unanswered. Were the roughly 100 people arrested charged with disorderly conduct, obstruction, or something else? Were they released on the scene or processed through the system? The public deserves to know whether elected officials and candidates who deliberately broke the law faced the same consequences as any other New Yorker who blocks a city street.
Netanyahu did not ignore the political environment. During his UN address, he directly criticized Mamdani, according to a Fox News video segment in which correspondent Alexis McAdams reported that the Israeli prime minister rejected calls for his arrest and took aim at the New York City mayor. The confrontation between a sitting head of state and an American mayor over the treatment of protesters and the ICC warrant added an extraordinary diplomatic layer to what might otherwise have been a routine arrest blotter.
Mamdani's position, calling for the arrest of a visiting allied leader while his own endorsed candidates get arrested in the street, raises a question the mayor has not answered: What exactly is the governing philosophy here? If the mayor believes Netanyahu should be arrested under an ICC warrant, does he also believe his allies should face consequences for blocking public roadways? Or does the rule of law apply selectively, depending on whose cause is being served?
The progressive wave that elected Mamdani also carried Avila Chevalier to her primary victory over a five-term incumbent. That movement has made opposition to Israel a litmus test, and Thursday's mass arrest outside the UN was its most visible demonstration yet. Trump's recent visit to Gracie Mansion underscored how much political ground has shifted in New York, and how many competing pressures now bear down on a mayor who built his career on ideological purity.
Manijeh Moradian, a university professor at the protest, told Reuters: "What's being done to Gaza, the obliteration of an entire society, in our name, with our tax dollars, this is our responsibility to speak out against." That framing, American taxpayers as complicit, is the engine of the movement Mamdani has endorsed, funded, and staffed with his political allies.
When a party's rising stars treat an arrest record as a campaign credential, voters are entitled to ask what those leaders would do with actual power. Thursday in Manhattan offered a preview.
