‘Moral Cowards’: Netanyahu Rages as Delegates Abandon His UN Speech

By Palestine Chronicle Staff

Dozens of diplomats abandoned Benjamin Netanyahu’s UN address. (Photo: Video grab)

Dozens of diplomats abandoned Benjamin Netanyahu’s UN address, leaving him to defend Israel’s genocide in Gaza before an empty hall.

Key Developments

• Dozens of diplomats walked out as Netanyahu approached the podium, following a Palestinian appeal for delegates to boycott his address.
• Netanyahu called those who left “moral cowards” and attacked protesters as “phony human rights protesters.”
• The speech came amid an ICC arrest warrant, mounting international condemnation and an absence of meetings with senior US or Western officials.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced a mass diplomatic walkout as he addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday.

Dozens of representatives rose from their seats and left the chamber as Netanyahu approached the podium, leaving large sections of the hall empty before he began speaking.

The walkout followed an appeal from the Palestinian mission to the UN, which had urged diplomats to interrupt Netanyahu’s appearance with an organized departure.

In its message to delegations, the Palestinian mission described Netanyahu as a “war criminal” and said a mass walkout would demonstrate that the international community would not remain silent in the face of genocide, war crimes and Israel’s illegal occupation.

Netanyahu immediately attacked the representatives who had left. “Before I begin, just a quick announcement: if there are any other moral cowards who haven’t yet left this hall, please do so now,” he said.

The departure was broadcast during official UN coverage of the General Assembly, while journalists inside the chamber reported that many Arab and other international representatives had joined the protest.

The Israeli prime minister accused the departing diplomats of hypocrisy, claiming that Israel had protected their countries by attacking Iran and its regional allies.

“It’s hard to imagine more mind-blowing hypocrisy,” he said.

Netanyahu also targeted demonstrators protesting outside the UN and those who had rejected his appearance inside the chamber.

“Where were you when the Iranian tyrants butchered and maimed tens of thousands of unarmed Iranian civilians?” he asked, dismissing his opponents as “phony human rights protesters.”

The walkout presented a highly visible illustration of Israel’s growing international isolation, nearly three years into its genocidal war on Gaza.

Attacking Critics

Netanyahu used the address to reject mounting accusations that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

“Accusing Israel of genocide is the greatest lie of the century,” he said.

“We’ve taken innumerable steps to protect the civilian population,” Netanyahu claimed, before declaring: “Israel didn’t commit genocide. Israel prevented genocide.”

His denial came after the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The commission also found that senior Israeli officials had incited genocidal acts.

Israel’s war has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, wounded over 174,000 and destroyed or damaged approximately 90 percent of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, according to Palestinian authorities.

Netanyahu also devoted part of his address to attacking New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has repeatedly condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“Shame on you. Shame on you for distorting the facts,” Netanyahu said.

“You can’t silence me. You can’t silence the truth,” he added, accusing Mamdani of antisemitism and claiming that Jewish residents no longer felt safe in New York.

Mamdani responded by saying Netanyahu had used the UN podium “to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians.”

“Yet no lie can change the fact that he remains the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Mamdani added.

The ICC issued the arrest warrant for Netanyahu on November 21, 2024. The court said there were reasonable grounds to believe that he bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including starvation as a method of warfare.

Netanyahu nevertheless described the Israeli military as “the most moral army in the world.”

“The days when Jews were defenseless victims marched to the slaughter, those days are over,” he said. “Today we have a state. Today we have an army.”

Isolated Visit

Netanyahu devoted another major portion of his address to Israel’s military attacks on Iran and the wider regional war.

“Devastating Iran’s nuclear facilities was hard,” he said. “But for me it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve had to make as prime minister. If I hadn’t done it, we’d be dead.”

He described Israel as fighting a “seven-front war” and praised its attacks on Hamas, Hezbollah, Yemen’s Ansarallah movement and Iran.

“Our enemies expected us to collapse. Instead, we rose and fought like lions,” Netanyahu said.

Referring to Israel’s operation involving explosive pagers in Lebanon, which killed and wounded civilians as well as Hezbollah members, he added: “Do you remember the beepers? Hezbollah certainly remembers them.”

Netanyahu also praised US President Donald Trump for his “bold leadership,” claiming that Israel and the US had acted together to “save civilization.”

Despite that praise, Netanyahu reportedly held no meeting with Trump or other senior US political officials during the visit.

He also had no scheduled meetings with leading Western heads of government, while a planned meeting with billionaire Elon Musk was reportedly canceled.

Retired Israeli diplomat Alon Liel described the visit as unprecedented in its isolation.

“There has never been such a humiliating visit to the UN for an Israeli prime minister,” Liel said.

“Netanyahu can meet Argentine and Greek leaders, but he cannot meet any American politician or official,” he added. “This means not only Europeans but also Americans are avoiding him.”

“Even in the US, Netanyahu is acting like an unwanted person,” Liel said.

Netanyahu also sought to minimize escalating Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank, describing those responsible as a “handful of juvenile delinquents.”

He claimed that settler violence caused only “two or three casualties a year,” despite near-daily reports of attacks, expulsions, shootings, land seizures and property destruction across Palestinian communities.

The address ended as it began: before rows of empty seats, amid protests inside and outside the UN, and under the shadow of an international arrest warrant.

(PC, UN, ICC, OHCHR, Anadolu, WAFA, Israeli Media)