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Netanyahu Calls Walkout Delegates 'Moral Cowards' at UN

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Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu defended military campaigns in Gaza and Iran at the UN General Assembly as dozens of delegates walked out in protest.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a defiant address to the United Nations General Assembly, defending his country's military campaigns in Gaza, Iran and across the Middle East as dozens of delegates walked out of the hall in protest as he stepped up to the podium.

Netanyahu made no attempt to soften his message. "We're going to win. We have no other choice," he said, pledging to press on with the fighting. Turning to the delegates who had left their seats, he added: "If there are any other moral cowards who haven't left the hall, please do so now." He also rejected accusations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

The Israeli leader is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes. From the podium, he launched a series of attacks on the governments and figures who have condemned his conduct of the war.

Colonialism and settler violence

Netanyahu dismissed charges of colonialism levelled at Israel, singling out European critics. "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 sake, they invented the term," he said.

He also disputed reporting on violence by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, telling the assembly that the media had misrepresented the scale of the killings and that "maybe two or three" people are killed each year. UN figures tell a different story. According to the world body, 23 Palestinians have been killed in the context of settler attacks this year, and 72 since the start of 2023.

The prime minister named Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "tyrant" and accused him of backing the Palestinian armed group Hamas. Erdogan had told the assembly on Tuesday that the suffering in Gaza and the West Bank "deeply offends the conscience of humanity."

The Turkish presidency responded sharply. Communications director Burhanettin Duran said Netanyahu's use of the UN podium to make "baseless accusations" against Turkey and Erdogan clashed with the organisation's "ideals of peace, law and dialogue," according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.

Clash with New York's mayor

Netanyahu also turned on New York City's mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who had once vowed to arrest the Israeli leader before conceding he lacked the authority to do so. "Since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York," Netanyahu said.

Mamdani's office hit back in a statement, saying the prime minister had "used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians."

The prime minister reserved warm words for US President Donald Trump, thanking him for his "bold leadership" and referring to the air strikes carried out by the United States.

Abbas addresses assembly by video

Hours before Netanyahu spoke, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered his own message to the assembly in a recorded video. He was forced to address the gathering remotely after being denied a US entry visa.

Abbas warned that Israeli policies, and in particular what he called the illegal expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, threatened "the very life and existence of the Palestinian people on their homeland." He said the settlement drive was undermining the two-state solution, the internationally backed framework for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Palestinian leader accused Israel of subjecting his people to "killing, destruction, starvation and attempts at displacement, as well as a genocidal war" in Gaza.

The exchange of accusations at the UN unfolded against the backdrop of a devastated Gaza. Almost a year after a ceasefire came into force, reconstruction of the territory has yet to begin.

Netanyahu UN speech, UN General Assembly, Israel Gaza war, Mahmoud Abbas, moral cowards, West Bank settlers, Erdogan Israel, two-state solution

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