An array of liberal and left-wing Jewish groups took to the streets on Thursday to protest the arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York City for his address to the U.N. General Assembly.

His arrival sparked a wave of demonstrations in Manhattan organized by groups spanning from liberal Zionist to anti-Zionist, as well as multiple Israeli expatriate groups. 

“We are gathered here as American Jews, Israelis, New Yorkers, to say: You are not welcome here,” said Margo Hughes-Robinson, executive director of the left-leaning group New York Jewish Agenda.

She spoke at a protest in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, near the U.N., sponsored by a host of liberal Jewish groups including hers, T’ruah, J Street, New Jewish Narrative, New Israel Fund, Smol Emuni and Partners for Progressive Israel.

“He is promoting a racist, destructive policy that is endangering both Palestinians and Israelis as well as others in the region,” Jill Jacobs, T’ruah’s CEO, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an interview.

Counterprotesters attempted to drown out the gathering by blowing whistles and yelling into megaphones. They led chants of “Bibi!” and sang “Hatikva,” Israel’s national anthem, and “Am Israel Chai.”

Netanyahu’s visit marked the culmination of a back-and-forth between the prime minister and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who had vowed during his campaign to have him arrested. Netanyahu used part of his U.N. speech to attack Mamdani, whom he called “the antisemitic mayor of New York.”

Mamdani had acknowledged that he lacked the legal authority to carry out his campaign vow to arrest Netanyahu but has continued to call him a war criminal and the “architect of a horrific genocide of the Palestinian people,” and called for his International Criminal Court arrest warrant to be carried out.

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