The global community had its say yesterday as Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the UN caused dozens of delegates to walk out of the assembly hall.
Speaking at the 81st United Nations General Assembly, the Israeli prime minister defended his country’s campaigns in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon, saying: “We’re going to win. We have no other choice.”
Despite a UN commission saying that Israel is committing a genocide in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu denied this in his speech.
The walkout of the assembly hall was organised by a Palestinian representative who said that they wanted to “send a clear message to Netanyahu and his government that no one is willing to aid, abet, or be complicit in its genocide and war crimes and illegal occupation, which all peace-loving states and peoples demand must come to an end”.
In response to the walkout, Netanyahu said: “If there are any other moral cowards who haven’t left the hall, please do so now.”
Throughout his almost one-hour-long speech, Netanyahu took aim at the international media, regional leaders such as Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the leftwing commentator Hasan Piker and the New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani
He described Erdoğan as a “tyrant” who “hosts Hamas terrorists” and called Mamdani the “antisemitic mayor of New York”.
Speaking about Iran, the Israeli PM said: “Devastating Iran’s nuclear facilities was … very hard to do.
“But for me, it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make as prime minister. Because if we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead.”
He continued to refute global condemnation, saying: “So, to all those spreading these lies about my country and about our brave soldiers, whether they sit in this hall or in the office of the antisemitic mayor of New York, I say this: shame on you!”.
However, the mass walkout from delegates of a diverse range of nations from across the world, was a clear message to Israel and Netanyahu, that the global community may have seen enough.
Full list of nations to walk out of Netanyahu’s speech
While the UN does not keep official record of which delegates walk out of speeches, Israeli officials have issued a list, which includes both those who left the hall and those who never turned up at all.
The list is as follows:
- Suriname
- Tuvalu
- Turkmenistan
- Yemen
- Egypt
- Panama
- Senegal
- Palestine
- Sudan
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Venezuela
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Belize
- Republic of the Congo
- Oman
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Tonga
- Uzbekistan
- Angola
- Barbados
- Colombia
- Comoros
- Dominica
- Djibouti
- North Macedonia
- San Marino
- South Africa
- Somalia
- Algeria
- Bangladesh
- Brunei Darussalam
- Brazil
- Chile
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Lebanon
- Liberia
- Eritrea
- Chad
- Central African Republic
- Libya
- Mauritania
- Jordan
- Nicaragua
- Madagascar
- Niger
- Peru
- Saint Lucia
- Slovenia
- Afghanistan
- Bahamas
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- North Korea
- Eswatini
- Syria
- Uganda
- Pakistan
- Lesotho
- Bolivia
- Spain
- Cuba
- Equatorial Guinea
- Iran
- Kyrgyzstan
- Iraq
- Mozambique
- Myanmar
- Ireland
- Maldives
- Indonesia
- Kuwait
- Namibia
- Malaysia
- Guyana
- Kenya