Hundreds of Diplomats Walk Out as Netanyahu Takes the U.N. Stage: 'Moral Cowards'
Israel's prime minister spoke to a mostly empty General Assembly hall, called genocide accusations "the greatest lie of the century" and aimed his sharpest lines at New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, weeks before Israeli elections.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday to a hall of mostly empty seats, after hundreds of diplomats rose and walked out en masse as he stepped to the lectern in protest over Israel's war in Gaza.
Netanyahu answered with open contempt. "If there are any more moral cowards who haven't left the hall, please do so now," he said.
He then revisited Hamas' October 2023 attack on Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and which set off the current round of fighting, and defended the ongoing war against Iran in existential terms. "If we hadn't done it, we'd all be dead," he said. He thanked President Donald Trump for siding with Israel in what he called a "battle against the barbarians," and he rejected the charge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, where Palestinian health officials say more than 75,000 people have been killed. "Accusing Israel of genocide is the greatest lie of the century," he said.
Netanyahu also took swipes at Qatar and Turkey, accusing both of spreading antisemitism and false information about Israel. He described the surge in settler violence against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank as the work of "a handful of young juvenile delinquents."
As expected, he saved some of his sharpest words for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom he accused of antisemitism and of cozying up to his Hamas "buddies." Mamdani, who once pledged to arrest Netanyahu for crimes against humanity before acknowledging he lacked the jurisdiction, has strenuously denied supporting Hamas. "You can't silence me," Netanyahu said. "You can't silence the truth." Earlier in the week, asked about a video in which Netanyahu attacked him, Mamdani responded that the Israeli military had killed an 11-year-old boy in a zone deemed safe in Gaza, "so that is what I have to say to his video."
The speech was aimed as much at voters at home as at the diplomats in the room. Israel holds crucial elections next month, and Netanyahu's main domestic challenge comes from a right wing that accuses him of not being tough enough in the multifront war on Iran and its proxies. "The main reason that brings him to the UN General Assembly this time is the opportunity to talk, using the UN microphone, to his voters in Israel," political analyst Ephraim Ganor wrote in the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv.
The trip also underscored Israel's isolation. Netanyahu had no scheduled meeting with Trump or other U.S. officials, with the White House focused on its summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and he was expected to fly home right after the address to be back before the Jewish holiday of Sukkot begins Friday evening. "I am leaving tonight for New York in order to defend, from the U.N. podium, Israel and IDF soldiers," he said in a video before departing. "You hear the terrible lies that are being spread there."
Outside, the visit drew protests in Manhattan, where actor Susan Sarandon was among demonstrators detained by police, according to wire reports. The walkout itself has become an annual ritual at Netanyahu's General Assembly appearances, and he had expected it. For a leader who has cast himself as a defiant truth-teller standing alone against the world, the empty seats may have been exactly the picture he wanted Israeli voters to see.
