UN General Assembly: Delegates leave the hall, Netanyahu calls them “cowards”

/rtr/taz | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharply attacked the New York mayor, Western leaders, Qatar and Turkey during a speech to the UN General Assembly on Thursday. Dozens of diplomats had previously left the hall in protest. Netanyahu then called them “moral cowards.” With a view to the military conflicts in his country, the head of government emphasized: “We will win, we have no other choice.”

In his 40-minute speech, Netanyahu accused New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who had described him as a war criminal, of anti-Semitism. “To all those who spread these lies about my country and our brave soldiers, whether in this room or in the office of the anti-Semitic mayor of New York, I say: Shame on you!” Netanyahu said. He accused the heads of state and government of Western countries of giving in to “anti-Semitic mobs”.

Mamdani immediately rejected the allegations. Netanyahu used his speech to “repeat baseless lies designed to whitewash his genocide against the Palestinians,” the mayor explained. No lie can change the fact that there is an arrest warrant against Netanyahu from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Netanyahu said in his speech: "Israel did not commit genocide. Israel prevented genocide." Qatar rejected the accusation of wanting to incite public opinion against Israel. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Platform X that Netanyahu's repeated attacks on Doha were aimed at distracting from responsibility for his own policies on the ground.

The speech, broadcast on prime time in Israel, was considered a campaign appearance less than five weeks before the general election. In advance, the Israeli government said it had financed 500 posters and dozens of trucks with messages in support of Israel in Manhattan. As in previous UN appearances, Netanyahu used props. He held up a pager, a reference to an attack on Hezbollah members in Lebanon, and showed a Starlink satellite internet receiver.

The speech takes place against the backdrop of Israel's increasing diplomatic isolation. Because of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, Netanyahu cannot travel to many countries. Most recently, the former allies Great Britain, France and Canada imposed sanctions against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. In New York, several hundred people protested against Israeli policies, resulting in arrests.

Netanyahu praised US President Donald Trump in his speech, but the two did not meet. He described the increasing violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank as the work of a “handful of young criminals.”

While the Israeli prime minister gave his speech at the UN headquarters, police in New York arrested at least 30 people during protests against Netanyahu in front of the UN building. Among them were Oscar winner Susan Sarandon, Emmy winner Hannah Einbinder and local politicians. The approximately 200 demonstrators had gathered in front of the UN headquarters in advance of Netanyahu's speech. The rally was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, a Jewish activist group that supports Palestinians.

Participants blocked traffic and wore uniform white T-shirts with slogans such as “Money for people, not bombs,” “No war,” and “Free Palestine.” After the police used loudspeakers to ask the crowd to leave the street, many of the demonstrators remained seated on the asphalt. The police pulled the demonstrators out of the group one by one, tied their hands and took them to police buses. There, activists continued to shout “Netanyahu, go to hell.”