UN General Debate | Netanyahu defends wars at UN

Protesters hold pictures of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump during a demonstration on the day of Netanyahu's speech to the 81st UN General Assembly in New York. Photo: AFP/Charly Triballeau New York police are said to have arrested 100 protesters as Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to justify Israel's wars at the United Nations headquarters. Among those arrested were prominent actors and politicians, including Oscar winner Susan Sarandon, Emmy winner Hannah Einbinder, Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier and New York City Council member Chi Ossé, the Arabic TV news channel Al-Jazeera reported. Actress Cynthia Nixon – known from “Sex and the City” – was also at the demonstration. However, people close to her said she was not taken into custody.

They had protested with other pro-Palestinian activists against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's appearance at the UN General Assembly. Footage from the AFP news agency shows police handcuffing Sarandon on Thursday. The rally was organized by the left-wing Israel-critical and anti-Zionist organization “Jewish Voice for Peace,” which condemns the occupation of the Palestinian territories as an apartheid system.

Around 200 people took part in the protest, wearing uniform white T-shirts with slogans such as “Fund people instead of bombs”, “No war” and “Freedom for Palestine”. A New York Police Department spokesman said several participants in an unregistered demonstration were taken into custody after they resisted orders to clear an intersection.

Susan Sarandon had already taken part in protests against the Gaza war in the past. She recently said at the Venice Film Festival that she was losing out on role offers because of her attitude, “because there are agencies that still advise people not to hire me. But that’s just how the balance of power looks,” she said.

Actress Susan Sarandon (M) and other protesters are arrested before Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly. Photo: dpa/AP/Madison Swart When the Israeli Prime Minister entered the plenary hall of the UN headquarters, members of many other delegations demonstratively left the already half-empty room. There could hardly be any talk of a general assembly to which Netanyahu wanted to address. According to some estimates, 77 countries left the chamber in protest before Netanyahu's speech began. Netanyahu reacted in a decidedly combative, almost defiant manner, reports the BBC: “We will win. We have no other choice." And followed up with insulting words to those who didn't want to listen: "If there are any other moral cowards who haven't left the room yet, please do so now."

What then followed was a speech that was actually to be expected: Netanyahu showed no sign of giving in to the Gaza war and no doubts about action against Iran. On the contrary: he vigorously defended his war course, harshly rejected international accusations against his country and at the same time attacked his critics. "Accusing Israel of genocide is the biggest lie of the century," he told the UN General Assembly. Israel did not commit genocide, but rather "prevented genocide," emphasized Netanyahu. If Israel had not stopped the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas, it would have killed every single one of them, he said in his usual pointed tone. He was also reacting to the speech by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who had previously accused Israel of a "war of genocide" in the Gaza Strip in his speech shown on video. Abbas was denied an entry visa by the US government.

Netanyahu found a simple explanation for the ongoing acts of violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank: These are "a handful of young criminals", around 150 in number, who throw stones or cut down olive trees. Netanyahu did not mention that these criminal acts were covered up by the authorities and the army, as reports from various human rights organizations have shown.

In his 40-minute speech, Benjamin Netanyahu also took aim at those heads of state who had dared to criticize Israel's policy in Palestine. He called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a “tyrant” and accused him of harboring “terror chiefs” from the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas. Great Britain and France didn't fare well either: "They accuse Israel, tiny Israel, of colonialism - what colonialism." And who blames us for that? Including people in Great Britain and France. For heaven’s sake, they invented the term,” Netanyahu said. As a reminder: The governments in Paris and London have now recognized Palestine as an independent state, but Germany has not.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani also received a lot of polemics. Netanyahu called him the "anti-Semitic mayor of New York" and accused him of repeatedly falsely accusing Israel of genocide. Netanyahu also accused the mayor of trying to prevent his visit to New York and try to silence him. “Well, you can't silence me. “You cannot silence the truth,” said the Israeli head of government.

"Accusing Israel of genocide is the biggest lie of the century"

When it came to the war against Iran, Netanyahu went big again: "Destroying Iran's nuclear facilities was difficult, it was a very difficult undertaking, but for me it was one of the easiest decisions I ever had to make as prime minister - because if we hadn't done it, we would all be dead," he said in a speech at the UN general debate in New York.

Netanyahu was never bothered by the fact that neither the US intelligence services nor the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found any evidence that an Iranian nuclear bomb was imminently being built. For decades, he kept alive the never-proven suspicion that Iran was on the verge of becoming a nuclear power: "I vowed to prevent Iran's murderous dictatorship from developing nuclear bombs - nuclear weapons that are aimed at destroying Israel, nuclear weapons that could threaten the entire world," he continued. "That's exactly what we did."

That was the end of the matter for him. The Israeli prime minister now has other worries: On October 27, the Israelis will elect a new parliament, and Netanyahu probably has little chance of retaining his position as head of government. But the topics of “fighting terrorism” and the “Iranian atomic bomb” can be used to mobilize domestic voters across all political camps.

There can no longer be any question of a truly free choice. The government is taking targeted action against Arab parties. Around 20 percent of the Israeli population is of Arab origin and mostly self-identifies as Palestinian. The Central Election Committee in Israel excluded the Arab parties a good month before the parliamentary elections, but not the right-wing extremist Jewish party Ozma Yehudit. The committee rejected a request to exclude Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gwir's Ozma Jehudit (Jewish Force) party from taking part in the election, the Kan broadcaster reported. 

On Wednesday, the committee voted 18 to 5 against the Raam led by Mansur Abbas and against the joint list of Khadash, Taal and Balad. Individual MPs were also excluded. The accusation in applications against the parties' participation was, among other things, that they supported the armed struggle against Israel. The United List condemned the decision as “political, racist and anti-democratic.” 

The decisions on the electoral lists are not yet final and can be appealed to the Supreme Court. It is likely that the court will overturn it. According to opinion polls, neither Netanyahu's camp nor his opponents can expect an absolute majority in the landmark election on October 27th. The Raam Party could play the role of kingmaker.

Netanyahu and his political allies have repeatedly questioned the participation of Arab parties in political alliances in Israel. Parts of the Jewish opposition are also ruling out a coalition with Arab parties. The rejection is justified, among other things, by security concerns and the accusation that individual Arab MPs do not distance themselves sufficiently from Palestinian organizations. In addition, critics point to the rejection of the definition of Israel as a Jewish state by individual Arab parties, who see this as discriminatory against the Arab minority. With agencies

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defends his war policy during his speech during the 81st UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York. Photo: AFP/Timothy A. Clary We are for sale. But only to our readers. The “nd.Genossenschaft” belongs to those who read and write it. With your contribution, you ensure that our journalism remains accessible to everyone - without any media corporation, billionaire or paywall.

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