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For Immediate Release
September, 26 2024, 11:41am EDT
Contact:
Email:,info@jewishvoiceforpeace.org
Actor Rowan Blanchard Arrested with 25 Palestinian and Jewish New Yorkers Blockading Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Motorcade Route to the United Nations, Disrupting His Address to the General Assembly in Wake of Assault on Lebanon and Genocide in Gaza
Protesters called for an immediate end to Israel’s assault on Lebanon and year-long genocide in Gaza
Actor and activist Rowan Blanchard was arrested with 25 Palestinian and Jewish New Yorkers outside of the United Nations on Thursday, disrupting the motorcade route of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he prepared to address the General Assembly.
“As Jewish New Yorkers we vehemently condemn Prime Minister Netanyahu’s assault on Lebanon and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. We will continue to raise our voices in dissent until the United States government stops arming Israel and Palestinians are able to live with the full freedom and dignity they deserve,” said Jay Saper of Jewish Voice for Peace.
Netanyahu’s visit to New York comes a week after pagers and walkie talkies were detonated across Lebanon, killing at least 70 and maiming thousands of people. Only a few days after the attacks, Israel launched hundreds of airstrikes, killing over 500 people in a single day — one of the highest daily death tolls of any war in recent history — and injuring another 1,600.
“Netanyahu is not welcome in New York,” said actor and activist Rowan Blanchard.
Netanyahu’s visit also marks nearly a year of a relentless bombing of Gaza that has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, which has led the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for the prime minister’s crimes against humanity.
“Our world leaders have done nothing to stop Netanyahu and his genocidal administration from murdering over 15,000 children and several times more adults. As he plans to escalate the slaughter, we must be the ones to stop him,” said Munir Marwan of
Palestinian Youth Movement.
The protesters blockaded the Israeli motorcade route outside of the Midtown Manhattan headquarters of the United Nations, bringing traffic to a halt near the East River. They wore red shirts that read “Stop Arming Israel” and unfurled banners that read
“Stop the Genocide” and “No War Criminals Welcome in NYC.” They chanted “Stop Bombing Gaza.”
The arrests kick off what is expected to be a daylong protest of Netanyahu, with hundreds anticipated outside the United Nations later in the afternoon. Netanyahu’s last visit to the United States, when he addressed a joint session of Congress on July 24, was also with massive protests in the streets and one of the largest sit-ins in the history of Congress that led to the arrest of over 200 people.
Jewish Voice for Peace is a national, grassroots organization inspired by Jewish tradition to work for a just and lasting peace according to principles of human rights, equality, and international law for all the people of Israel and Palestine. JVP has over 200,000 online supporters, over 70 chapters, a youth wing, a Rabbinic Council, an Artist Council, an Academic Advisory Council, and an Advisory Board made up of leading U.S. intellectuals and artists.
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'Let Me Clear Things Up': Bernie Sanders Explains Wealth Tax to Wall Street Overlord Jamie Dimon
“If my 5% wealth tax on billionaires was enacted, you’d owe $135 million more in taxes, and a family of four making $150,000 or less would receive a $12,000 payment. Oh, and you’d still be worth more than $2.5 billion."
Mar 31, 2026
As billionaires nationwide rally to stop tax increases on the wealthy, US Sen. Bernie Sanders stepped in to "clear things up" for one of Wall Street's top power brokers after he railed against the proposal.
Following in the footsteps of California, where a popular ballot initiative to impose a one-time 5% tax on the state's 200 billionaires has gained steam, Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced their own federal proposal earlier this month to tax those with net worths of more than $1 billion 5% of their annual household wealth.
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Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who is worth about $2.8 billion according to Forbes, appeared on Fox News on Tuesday and was asked by anchor Brian Kilmeade about Sanders' frequent accusations that billionaires "don't pay their fair share" in taxes.
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The two did not address the facts that may have led Sanders to draw such a conclusion. For instance, the senator often notes that fewer than 1,000 billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half of the US, around 175 million people.
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Sanders took to social media to respond to Dimon's incredulity about his idea of "fairness."
"Ok, Jamie: Let me clear things up for you," the senator wrote. "If my 5% wealth tax on billionaires was enacted, you’d owe $135 million more in taxes, and a family of four making $150,000 or less would receive a $12,000 payment."
"Oh, and you’d still be worth more than $2.5 billion," Sanders added. "Seems pretty fair to me."
Dimon's remarks came as billionaires are in a full-blown panic over the proposal for a one-time 5% tax in California, which is projected to raise about $100 billion, mostly to cover the Medicaid funding shortfall caused by the massive cuts in last year's GOP budget law.
A poll earlier this month showed that the measure, which will be put to voters in November, has about 2-1 approval, despite a more than $80 million effort by the state's elite—most notably Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page—to stop it in its tracks.
Dimon himself is not known to have contributed to the effort. But during his Tuesday appearance on Fox, he echoed one of the movement's oft-used talking points: that raising taxes on the rich leads to an "exodus" of wealth from financial hubs like New York and California.
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While handing down the injunction, Leon reminded Trump that "the president of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations," then emphasized "he is not, however, the owner" of the building.
The judge—appointed by former President George W. Bush—found that Trump's ballroom was the first time that a proposed major addition to the White House went forward without any kind of congressional approval, and he recommended that the president seek input from the legislative branch before moving forward with the project.
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Trump last year tore down the entire East Wing of the White House in preparation for the ballroom's construction, which was set to begin this week.
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The so-called "Make America Healthy Again" movement encapsulated a key campaign promise ahead of President Donald Trump's second term in office, with Trump telling one Pennsylvania crowd in 2024, "We’re going to get toxic chemicals out of our environment, and we’re going to get them out of our food supply."
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Weeks after the US Senate confirmed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy in February 2025—a confirmation that he secured after making the baseless claim that Americans would prefer the for-profit insurance system over universal healthcare and refusing to reject debunked claims about vaccines—the administration appeared to make clear its true views on public health when it announced 31 climate regulation rollbacks.
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"Several proposed policies would weaken water-quality standards, reducing drinking-water safety for millions of people," reads the paper. "For example, the EPA seeks to weaken regulations governing effluent discharges from coal-fired power plants. The resulting increase in waterborne lead, mercury, and arsenic will increase the incidence of bladder cancers and adversely affect children’s cognitive function."
The study's authors emphasized that "statistics and documentation are not enough" to protect the public from the White House's harmfiul policies.
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