United Nations Envoys Walk out of Israeli PM Netanyahu's Speech

Dozens of envoys from across the world walked out of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to the UN on Thursday, September 24, in protest against the Israeli leader.

Delegates jeered and booed, while Netanyahu's own team stood and applauded, and the speaker of the session shouted for order. "If there are any other moral cowards who haven't left this hall, please do so now," Netanyahu said.

He lashed out at New York's popular leftist Mayor Zohran Mamdani as "antisemitic" and claimed that "since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe." Mamdani had threatened to execute an ICC arrest warrant against Netanyahu, before conceding he did not have the authority.

The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) said in 2024 it had reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu was responsible for war crimes in the Gaza campaign, which responded to Hamas' deadly October 7, 2023 attacks.
The total or partial reproduction of an article, without the prior written authorization of Le Monde, is strictly forbidden.

Adding to tensions, dozens of protesters, some brandishing "stop the genocide" banners, gathered near the UN. Several demonstrators were detained, including Hollywood star actor Susan Sarandon. One of Netanyahu's fiercest critics, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, was unable to attend the UN gathering after the Trump administration refused him a visa.

In a video message played ahead of Netanyahu's speech, Abbas said, "We reject these unlawful punitive measures, and we reject the accusations and justifications on which they were based."

Britain and France, historic partners of Israel that have become increasingly outspoken in their criticism, were also in Netanyahu's firing line.

Reacting to French and British statements against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu attacked France and the UK for their past colonial empires. "They accuse Israel, tiny Israel, of colonialism – some colonialism. And who's accusing us? Among them are people in Britain and in France. For God's sakes, they invented the term," he told the UN General Assembly.

You can share an article by clicking on the share icons at the top right of it.
The total or partial reproduction of an article, without the prior written authorization of Le Monde, is strictly forbidden.

Netanyahu then spoke about the Israeli youths who target West Bank Palestinian communities. "What [the media] cover is a handful of young juvenile delinquents, about 150 in number, who go or throw stones, who chop down olive trees," Netanyahu said. "I can't stand that. I won't stand for vigilantism."

He accused Turkey of backing Iran-backed Islamist group Hamas, going on to call the country's leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "tyrant."

Netanyahu had especially harsh language on Iran, calling it a "murderous dictatorship." He said the war in which Israeli and US forces have attacked Iran for close to seven months had stopped Tehran from being able to develop nuclear weapons.

"I vowed to prevent Iran's murderous dictatorship from developing atomic bombs, nuclear weapons aimed at destroying Israel, nuclear weapons that could threaten the entire world," he said. He said the fall of Iran's leadership, whose envoy at the UN displayed a portrait of slain Quds force commander Qasem Soleimani on their vacant desk, was not "far."

Despite the onslaught, Iran's government has retained control and continues to defy the United States by effectively blocking the Strait of Hormuz.

During his speech, Netanyahu brandished a pager device like those that Israeli intelligence reportedly engineered with explosives before having them shipped to operatives of Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. They were later detonated, maiming dozens of Hezbollah operatives but also civilian bystanders.