‘Growing isolation’: 77 delegations walk out of Netanyahu’s UN speech

Scores of delegations have left the UN General Assembly hall shortly before Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech, amid growing international isolation of the occupying regime.

Footage which went viral on social media showed most delegations leaving the UN hall as Netanyahu took the podium on Thursday, which left him visibly uncomfortable, with many in the hall chanting 'Free Palestine' slogans and others booing him.

Israeli media were in a mourning mood, noting that representatives of 77 countries were absent during Netanyahu’s address to the UNGA, with several delegations leaving shortly before it began, while others had not been seated from the beginning.

The mass walkout drew significant attention in the Israeli media, with Channel 14 describing it as “a spit in Israel’s face”, while Yedioth Ahronoth called it “the dramatic protest”.

Haaretz, meanwhile, slammed Netanyahu’s speech as repetitive and dull, saying it was mainly aimed at his right-wing base and US President Donald Trump, amid what it described as growing international isolation for the Israeli premier.

US daily newspaper The Washington Post described the departure as part of a “fierce global backlash” against Israeli crimes, while Britain’s Independent noted that Netanyahu was speaking to a single audience anyway.

The Guardian noted that Netanyahu vowed to “finish the job” in Gaza while delegations left the hall in protest.

Netanyahu’s speech took place as protesters gathered outside the UN headquarters in New York, calling for an end to Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 74,000 Palestinians and injured more than 175,000.

‘Netanyahu’s speech repetition of lies’

During his speech, Netanyahu brazenly denied that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, taking aim at one of his most high-profile US critics, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and accusing him of anti-Semitism.

Mamadani has called for the execution of the arrest warrant issued for Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over genocidal war crimes.

“To all those spreading these lies ... whether they sit in this hall or in the office of the anti-Semitic mayor of New York, I say this: Shame on you!” Netanyahu said.

Mamdani responded that Netanyahu’s “lies” in his speech cannot erase the ICC arrest warrant issued for him.

“As he has done time and again, prime minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians," Mamdani said in a statement.

"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,” the mayor stressed.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant over war crimes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in November 2024.

During last year's mayoral campaign, Mamdani repeatedly pledged to direct the New York Police Department (NYPD) to arrest Netanyahu under the ICC warrant if he entered the city.

Last July, the mayor said New York City lacks the independent authority to execute the ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu, urging the federal government to enforce the warrant against the "war criminal."

Martyr Soleimani’s portrait confronts Gaza butcher as world walks out on Netanyahu at UN

The Iranian delegation on Thursday left behind a portrait of the legendary martyr General Qassem Soleimani as the Zionist regime’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, took the podium before a largely emptied hall.

'Netanyahu fled US quickly'

Shortly after his UN speech, Netanyahu left New York City, amid fear of arrest.

Israeli analyst Shalom Yerushalmi said in an article on The Times on Israel on Wednesday that “Netanyahu does not dare spend a single night in New York for fear … that he will be arrested.”

Comparing this week’s “extremely brief, stealthy” visit of Netanyahu to the US to his previous trips, Yerushalmi noted that the situation broadcasts something about Israel’s international standing, “which has genuinely never been worse.”

According to the article, Netanyahu’s aircraft didn’t land at JFK Airport “to avoid security nightmares and massive pro-Palestinian demonstrations threatening to block the airport expressways”

“He will fly in without journalists accompanying him, for a visit of less than 24 hours to the city that matters to him more than any other in the world,” Yerushalmi said on the eve of the trip.

“Around the world, Israel has become a toxic pariah, and the situation is not improving,” he said, blaming Israel’s prolonged wars in the region for the current situation.

“Netanyahu stubbornly insisted on continuing the war, in large part because he feared that far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir would quit and collapse his government.”

Netanyahu’s place is in prison: Hamas

Palestinian resistance movement Hamas denounced Netanyahu’s UN speech as “rife with lies”.

The movement noted that Netanyahu’s “denial of the systematic genocide” is contradicted by UN reports.

“We warn against the occupation’s terrorist and criminal schemes in the occupied West Bank, as well as war criminal Netanyahu’s denial of the Palestinian people’s existence there and his legitimization of settler crimes against the local population,” Hamas said.

Hamas criticized the decision to allow Netanyahu to address the UN General Assembly, saying his place “should be in prison to face justice for his crimes.”

The movement emphasized that the mass walkout of the UN hall ahead of Netanyahu’s speech reflected Israel’s growing international isolation and increasing global solidarity with Palestinians and their right to self-determination and statehood.

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