UNITED NATIONS: Dozens of envoys from across the world walked out of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the UNITED NATIONS: Dozens of envoys from across the world walked out of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the UN on Thursday in protest at 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.
The hall, sparsely filled earlier in the session, gradually filled up before Netanyahu’s speech. The Palestinian delegation had called in a memo seen by AFP for other missions to join their own act of protest. The embattled Israeli leader launched into a fiery speech assailing enemies and allies alike.
Locked in a tight race to stay in power in Oct. 27 elections, Netanyahu used the global platform to attack everyone from the leaders of Iran to New York’s first Muslim mayor and partners Britain, France and Turkiye.
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.”
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..
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.
Britain and France, historic partners of Israel that have become increasingly outspoken in their criticism, were also in Netanyahu’s firing line.
Britain and France have both imposed limited sanctions on Israeli exports from the occupied West Bank.
And French President Emmanuel Macron drew Israel’s ire for claiming in his own UN speech that Hamas was not active in the West Bank. Hamas’ stronghold has traditionally been Gaza.
Netanyahu attacked Britain and France for their past colonial empires during his turn at the lectern.
“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 said.
Netanyahu already had poor relations with Macron, who led a push by Western nations at last year’s UN General Assembly to recognize a Palestinian state. Netanyahu had especially harsh language on Iran, calling it a “murderous dictatorship.”
