Israeli anti-government protesters rally outside Netanyahu’s Manhattan hotel

NEW YORK — Israeli anti-government activists protested on Thursday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside his hotel in New York City following the premier’s arrival for the UN General Assembly, where he is due to speak on Friday.

Around a dozen demonstrators gathered in Manhattan holding signs that said, “Save Israel from Netanyahu,” “Stop the war,” and “Free them all.”

They chanted, “Bring them home” and “There is no military solution,” to the beat of a snare drum.

The protesters, led by Israeli expats in New York, seek an end to the war and the release of the hostages held in Gaza.

The Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul in 2023, before the Gaza war, sparked a wave of demonstrations by Israelis and American Jews in New York City, breaking a longstanding taboo against Jews protesting Israel in the US.

Netanyahu’s speech to the UN in September 2023 drew mass protests led by Israelis in New York City, but those numbers have dwindled amid the war in Gaza and escalating antisemitism in the US. The main protest movement pivoted to apolitical support for the Israeli hostages after the start of the war, while some have retained their political activism.

Other Israeli-led protests against Netanyahu are set to take place on Friday.

The Israeli expat activist group UnXeptable will rally outside the Fox News studio in Manhattan during the early-morning broadcast of Fox & Friends, a favorite of US President Donald Trump, in the hope that the president will view the demonstration.

“The most basic Jewish tenet is that saving lives is the highest value. Saving lives. Netanyahu has abandoned our hostages on the altar of his own political survival,” said Offir Gutelzon, founder of UnXeptable. “We will raise our voices to declare: Israelis demand life, peace and democracy — not endless war.”

Later in the morning, families of some of the hostages held in Gaza will protest outside the UN during Netanyahu’s speech.

The protest aims to continue demonstrations that have been held outside the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem. The activists’ stated goal is to pressure Netanyahu and other world leaders “to prioritize the hostages and demand their immediate release,” organizers said.

Non-Jewish anti-Israel activist groups have also been protesting at the UN and have announced a large demonstration for Friday morning around the same time.

Despite their shared opposition to Netanyahu, the two groups are not allies, as the non-Jewish anti-Israel activist groups aim to ostracize those they consider Zionists and support the destruction of the State of Israel.

The anti-Zionist activists staged a rally at the UN on Tuesday, attacking the world body despite the wave of recognitions for Palestinian statehood this week.

Also Thursday, as Netanyahu landed in New York, his office said it had ramped up its public diplomacy efforts by plastering trucks and billboards in the city with the message “Remember October 7” to highlight Hamas atrocities and “remind world leaders” of the hostages in Gaza.

“The Prime Minister’s Office and its Public Diplomacy Directorate initiated an unprecedented campaign in New York, featuring dozens of massive billboards and trucks surrounding the UN building and Times Square,” the PMO said in a statement.

The purpose of the campaign is “to remind world leaders and the public of the atrocities committed by Hamas, and of the unfathomable cruelty of the terror organization that continues to hold 48 hostages in Gaza,” the PMO added.

The billboards and trucks carried the English-language slogan “Remember October 7,” alongside a QR code that directs to a website that presents documentation of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre, according to the statement.

The Israeli government has mounted other public messaging efforts recently, such as billboards drawing attention to the hostages in Times Square.

Anti-Israel activists have also mounted a campaign using the same billboards.