A Mamdani-endorsed socialist running for Congress was arrested after blocking a roadway near the United Nations during Benjamin Netanyahu's visit, joining dozens who defied police orders.
Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Democratic nominee for New York’s 13th Congressional District, was taken into custody Thursday while protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appearance at the United Nations General Assembly, Fox News Digital reported.
Demonstrators blocked a roadway near the UN meeting in Manhattan, sitting in the street and refusing to clear it. Police then began making arrests. Roughly 80 to 100 protesters who stayed put were taken into custody.
Avila Chevalier is not a random activist. She is a 32-year-old Democratic Socialists of America member who beat a five-term incumbent in the June primary and carries the backing of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Her arrest puts a Mamdani-aligned House nominee in handcuffs for roadway obstruction during a foreign leader’s UN visit.
The demonstration drew about 250 people to the corner of 1st Avenue and 39th Street in Manhattan, City & State New York reported. Protesters who refused orders and remained in the roadway were the ones arrested.
City Council members Chi Ossé and Alexa Avilés were also arrested during the demonstration, according to City & State. Daily Mail reported that actress Susan Sarandon was among those detained.
The NYPD declined to provide additional information when reached by phone and directed questions to its public information line. Specific charges were not detailed in the available accounts.
Avila Chevalier’s campaign framed the arrest as peaceful dissent. On social media Thursday afternoon, the campaign posted that she had just been arrested while “peacefully protesting Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations.”
The same campaign post went further:
Her campaign wrote:
"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!"
Bloomberg later carried her own statement after the arrest:
"Netanyahu belongs at the Hague, not in the streets of New York City, and certainly not addressing the United Nations General Assembly,"
That is the candidate’s position in plain English. She wants the Israeli prime minister treated as a criminal defendant, not a head of government speaking at the UN. She also cast U.S. support for Israel as funding “genocide,” a charge she owns in her own words.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed Avila Chevalier in late May. He praised her commitment to working-class New Yorkers and said he looked forward to fighting alongside her on a shared affordability agenda, prior Fox News Digital reporting noted.
In June, she defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a five-term Democrat, for the party’s nomination in a district covering Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx. On June 18, 2026, Mamdani appeared at a get-out-the-vote rally at Kings Theatre with Avila Chevalier and other congressional candidates.
That political marriage now has a street-level sequel. A nominee the mayor boosted is arrested for joining a blockade timed to Netanyahu’s UN trip, a pattern also tracked when Netanyahu vowed to attend the UN gathering despite arrest demands aimed at keeping him away.
New Yorkers who want orderly streets and serious representation did not vote for sit-down blockades as a governing style. Yet that is the conduct on display from figures tied to the mayor’s coalition.
Avila Chevalier’s activism did not start at 1st Avenue and 39th Street. She previously led anti-Israel protests at Columbia University and said she helped launch Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign.
That same CUAD network later drew scrutiny for social media posts that included “Death to America” and a call for the “eradication of Western civilization,” earlier Fox reporting described. A House nominee with that résumé is now the Democratic standard-bearer in NY-13.
Voters can weigh that record without spin. Blocking a roadway near the UN is not petitioning City Hall. It is forcing police to clear a public street so a world leader can address the General Assembly.
The mayor’s orbit has faced repeated questions about protest politics around Netanyahu’s New York visit, including coverage of how Mamdani’s own remarks on Netanyahu protests collided with later denials.
Netanyahu’s UN General Assembly address was the backdrop. The protest was staged ahead of that speech. The mechanism was simple: occupy the roadway, refuse to move, and accept arrest as the point.
Israeli officials had already warned about disorder tied to the mayor’s posture toward the visit. That tension was laid out when Israel’s ambassador accused Mayor Mamdani of stoking disorder ahead of the address.
Netanyahu still came. He rejected calls for his arrest and criticized Mamdani, Fox News correspondent Alexis McAdams reported in related coverage. The confrontation over antisemitism and related charges continued in the UN setting itself, including when Netanyahu used his UN address to confront Mamdani over those issues.
Avila Chevalier’s campaign did not immediately respond when Fox News Digital sought more information about the arrest. The public record that does exist is enough to see the choice she made: roadway obstruction, a Hague slogan, and a demand to stop U.S. support for Israel.
City Council members standing beside that tactic only sharpen the picture. Local officeholders and a House nominee treated traffic blockade as politics by other means while a U.S. partner’s prime minister spoke at the UN.
Lawful protest ends where the street becomes a weapon against the public and the police. Candidates who cross that line own the handcuffs that follow.
New York already struggles with disorder, trust, and basic competence. Elevating street blockades into a campaign credential is how a major city tells taxpayers their daily life ranks below the activist calendar.
