At UN, Netanyahu defends Israel as delegates walk out

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday hit back at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s criticisms in his United Nations General Assembly address, pointing to the international warrant seeking the visiting prime minister’s arrest.

Netanyahu’s “lies” in his UN address cannot erase the warrant for genocidal war crimes issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), said the mayor.

“As he has done time and again, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitise his genocide of Palestinians,” Mamdani said in a statement, local media reported. “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.”

In November 2024 the ICC, based in The Hague, issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

This July, Mamdani urged United States federal authorities to enforce the ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu, acknowledging that New York City authorities lack the legal power to carry it out.

Read: UN chief says Israeli actions in occupied West Bank raising ‘spectre of ethnic cleansing’

Netanyahu mounted a forceful defence of Israel’s actions in the region at the UN, seeking to counter growing international isolation ahead of elections he could lose, as dozens of delegates streamed out. The walkout underscored the competing pressures facing Netanyahu, who is battling mounting criticism abroad over the Gaza war while campaigning for reelection at home ahead of an October 27 vote.

The divisions over Israel’s conduct were on display as Netanyahu began speaking, with dozens of delegates walking out in protest. He called them “moral cowards,” while supporters in the gallery chanted in Hebrew: “The people of Israel live.”

Netanyahu used his address to berate Mamdani for calling him a war criminal, Western European leaders for what he called succumbing to “antisemitic mobs,” and to accuse both Qatar and Turkiye of spreading lies about Israel.

“You tried to stop me from coming here. You tried. You tried to silence me. Well, you can’t silence me. You can’t silence the truth,” Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, said of Mamdani. He accused Mamdani of supporting Hamas militants, something Mamdani has denied.

“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!” Netanyahu said.

Qatar rejects Netanyahu’s accusations, calls on Israel change its policies

Qatar rejected Netanyahu’s accusation that it is conducting a campaign aimed at influencing public opinion against Israel, calling the allegation an attempt to divert attention from Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

“We categorically reject Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s accusation, made in his address to the UN General Assembly, that the State of Qatar is conducting a campaign to influence public opinion against Israel.”

“This continuing rhetoric against Qatar is nothing more than an attempt to divert attention from the attrocities committed by his government in the occupied Palestinian territories and their grave humanitarian consequence,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Majed al-Ansari said in a statement.

He pushed back against claims that the growing criticism of Israel around the world, particularly among younger people, is the result of organised influence campaigns.

Read More: Macron denounces Trump’s Gaza diplomacy as spectacle of shame

“Reducing the growing shift in global public opinion, particularly among young people, to allegations of ‘influence campaigns’ is an insult to the awareness and judgment of a generation that is witnessing, in real time and before the entire world, what is taking place on the ground and forming its views accordingly,” al-Ansari said.

He said if Netanyahu and other Israeli politicians want to change how Israel is viewed internationally, they should focus on government policies rather than blaming Qatar or other outside actors. “Attempts to hold Qatar, or anyone else, responsible for a global shift in public opinion shaped by what people themselves are witnessing are no longer persuasive,” the spokesman said.

He called on Israel to change its policies, respect international law and take responsibility for its actions.

Turkiye dismisses Netanyahu’s accusations as baseless

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s communications director dismissed Netanyahu’s accusations against against Turkiye and Erdogan as baseless.

“Netanyahu’s insolent and despicable remarks targeting our president cannot obscure his massacres, the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, or the legal proceedings before international law,” Burhanettin Duran said in a post on X.

Street protests in New York

Several hundred protesters gathered near the UN, with dozens blocking traffic and chanting, “Stop arming Israel, let Gaza live” and “Stop arming Israel, let Iran live.” Police detained them.

Netanyahu was making a short visit to the US for his UN address and, unusually, without a planned meeting with US President Donald Trump, whom he praised during his speech.

“We will continue to defend our state. We will continue to win because we have no other choice. In this battle against the barbarians, we’ve had no greater partner than President Trump. I thank him. I thank him for his bold leadership,” he said.