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MANY MEMBERS OF the UN General Assembly walked out ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech today, in which the Israeli prime minister railed against Western states’ recognition of Palestine and boasted about assassinating his enemies.
There were repeated calls for order as people cheered those leaving the hall. Taoiseach Micheál Martin was not among them because he was not present, apparently working on his own speech, which he was scheduled to deliver later in the day.
Netanyahu opened by referencing the hostages still “languishing in Hamas dungeons” and then went through a long list of Israel’s attacks on its neighbours, including in Palestine, Yemen, Iran and Lebanon.
He also held up a map entitled “The Curse”, which he said showed Iran’s “terror axis”.
Another prop was a badge he was wearing with a QR code that he said would show people “why we fight”.
Overall, the speech was aimed at discrediting the idea of a Palestinian state ever existing as Netanyahu sought to conflate the Palestinian Authority with its political rival Hamas, and accused Western states that have recognised Palestine of “rewarding antisemitism” and “buckling” under pressure from the media in their countries.
Each time Netanyahu listed off a leader his military had killed, it was met with applause by the Israeli and US delegations.
“Israel must finish the job” of destroying Hamas “as fast as possible”, he said.
Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, then claimed that much of the world “has forgotten” about the Hamas-led attack of October 2023.
He also repeated the claim that babies were burnt alive on 7 October 2023, which has never been proven almost two years later.
Netanyahu then addressed the hostages directly, saying his speech would be played on loudspeakers surrounding Gaza City.
He promised to bring the hostages home.
He also said that Israeli intelligence agencies had made his speech play through all phones in Palestine.
“Lay down your arms!” he said, adding that if Hamas surrendered, they would live, and that Israel “with Gazans” would maintain security control of Gaza while a new government is formed.
Netanyahu then held a “pop quiz” which gave a list of Iranian and Arab countries and militant groups as options.
The first question was: “Who shouts ‘Death to America”?
The second question was: “Who has murdered Americans and Europeans in cold blood?”
The answer to both was, according to Netanyahu, “all of the above”.
“Israel has had to fight a seven-front war,” he said, before berating countries that have opposed Israel’s wars against its neighbours.
He warned Western countries that Israel was keeping the “barbarians at the gate”.
“You can’t appease your way out of jihad,” he said.
The Israeli prime minister then claimed that Israel was showing “restraint” in Gaza, where its army has killed more than 65,000 people in less than two years.
A recent UN investigation team was the latest body to conclude that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry which does not speak on behalf of the world body, found that “genocide is occurring in Gaza” and that “the responsibility lies with the State of Israel”.
Netanyahu rejected this, asking the General Assembly: “Would we tell them ‘get out’ if we were trying to commit genocide?”, referring to evacuation orders to “safe zones” in Gaza.
“What a joke,” he said.
He compared accusations of genocide and deliberate starvation to examples of historical “blood libel”, a common refrain from Israeli officials.
Netanyahu accused the UK, Canada, Australia and France of “rewarding antisemitism” by recognising Palestinian statehood, claiming they sent the message: “Murdering Jews pays off.”
He said it would be “a mark of shame on all of you”.
Netanyahu then blamed the Palestinians exclusively for the absence of a two-state solution.
He accused the Palestinian Authority, which has limited governance over the Israeli occupied West Bank, of “funding terrorists” to kill Jews.
The Palestinian delegation was not present in the hall; its officials were denied US visas ahead of the summit this week.
“These are the people you want to give a state to?” Netanyahu asked, saying Western leaders had “buckled under pressure” from the media in their countries.
He said that over 90% of Israelis are opposed to a Palestinian state, as an argument for not reaching a peace settlement.
“Israel will not allow you to shove a terrorist state down our throats. We will not commit national suicide because you don’t have the guts to face down the hostile media and antisemitic mobs demanding Israel’s blood,” he said.
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