Netanyahu’s UN Speech: Delegates Walk Out as He Attacks Mamdani and Defends Iran War
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used his speech at the UN General Assembly on Thursday to defend the wars in Gaza and Iran and to attack New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani by name. Scores of delegates walked out as he took the podium. Supporters who were at the public gallery they cheered and later chanted “Am Yisrael Chai,” Hebrew for “the people of Israel live.” It was Netanyahu’s 15th address to the Assembly, and it came with Israeli elections due next month.
Delegates walk out as Netanyahu takes the podium
Before the speech, the Palestinian mission to the UN asked member states to bring as many staff as they could to the hall and leave together once Netanyahu was announced. When he walked to the rostrum, cheers and boos filled the hall as delegates headed for the exits, and most of the visible seats were empty afterward. General Assembly President Khalilur Rahman had to call for order several times.
Netanyahu answered the walkout head-on. He called those leaving “moral cowards” and told anyone still in the hall who fit that description to go too. He later argued that Israel was defending many of the countries whose delegates had just left, and claimed some of their leaders thank Israel privately for targeting Iran’s nuclear program. That is his own claim.
Accounts of the walkout’s size vary. The Associated Press said scores of delegates left, Fox News reported dozens, and NBC News described hundreds of diplomats rising to leave. Delegates also walked out during his speeches in 2025 and 2024, so the protest follows a pattern.
Netanyahu takes on Mamdani
A large part of the speech went after Mamdani, who has called Netanyahu a war criminal and pushed for his arrest. Netanyahu called the mayor antisemitic and said many Jews in New York have felt less safe since Mamdani took office. That is Netanyahu’s assertion. He also accused Mamdani of trying to silence him, and answered the genocide accusation by saying Israel did not commit genocide but prevented one.
The feud started before the speech. Earlier in the week, Netanyahu posted a video promising to use his UN address to tell what he called the truth about the mayor. Mamdani replied on Tuesday, calling Netanyahu the architect of a genocide against Palestinians.
Mamdani answered again in a statement Thursday. He said Netanyahu was repeating lies meant to sanitize what Mamdani calls a genocide of Palestinians, and that no speech could change the fact that Netanyahu is the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel rejects allegations of genocide and war crimes. On Wednesday night, Mamdani had planted an olive tree at Gracie Mansion with Palestinian families from Gaza.
Mamdani has acknowledged that New York City has no authority to execute the warrant and has urged federal authorities to do so.
Netanyahu defends the Iran war and thanks Trump
Netanyahu called the decision to attack Iran one of the easiest he has ever made and said that inaction would have been fatal for everyone. He thanked President Donald Trump for his support, saying that in this fight Israel has had “no greater partner than President Trump.” He also credited the United States with helping bring home every Israeli hostage.
He predicted that Iran’s government will fall, calling it “only a matter of time.” To make the point, he held up a Starlink satellite internet device and said he would leave it with the Assembly president to pass to the Iranian delegation, which was not in the hall. When they “inevitably defect,” he said, they could use it to speak freely online.
He held up a pager too, a reminder of the September 2024 operation in which Israel remotely detonated thousands of pagers distributed to Hezbollah. The attack wounded more than 3,000 people and killed 12, including two children. Props are a habit for him. Last year he wore an oversized QR code on his jacket and had his speech broadcast into Gaza through loudspeakers.
Netanyahu also accused Qatar and Turkey of spreading lies about Israel, and called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a tyrant.
Gaza, genocide claims and settler violence
Netanyahu called the accusation of genocide in Gaza “the biggest lie of the century.” Israel rejects claims of genocide and war crimes, but they ran through the week, with several world leaders making them in speeches before his. He reminded the hall that the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023, killed about 1,200 people, and said that toll was equal to 40,000 Americans killed in under 24 hours. Israel, he said, has spent three years fighting a seven-front war against enemies that include Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen and Iran.
The Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, says at least 73,922 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive since. The international community generally treats those figures as reliable, according to the AP. A ceasefire agreed last October stopped the heaviest fighting and led to the release of the remaining hostages, but further steps have stalled. Israel still controls most of Gaza, and Hamas has not disarmed.
On the West Bank, Netanyahu played down settler violence, describing the attackers as “young juvenile delinquents, about 150 in number.” Haaretz reported that he also claimed settlers kill only a few Palestinians a year, and described that claim as false. The AP noted that few settlers involved in attacks have been arrested.
Abbas speaks by video after another US visa denial
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, 90, addressed the Assembly earlier in the day by prerecorded video from Ramallah. The United States denied him and other top Palestinian officials visas for the second year in a row. Abbas said Palestinians will not leave their homeland or accept displacement, and asked what the international community is waiting for before it acts to protect them. He also called for the stalled 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan to be carried out. The AP noted that his standing at home and abroad has faded, but he made clear he did not intend to be sidelined quietly. Netanyahu has said there will be no Palestinian state while he leads Israel.
What happens next
Netanyahu is not scheduled to meet Trump or any other U.S. officials on this trip, and he is expected to fly home shortly after the speech. Dozens of people protesting his policies were detained in New York before he spoke, according to CNN. NBC News reported that his real audience was Israeli voters, and the AP said parts of the address sounded like a stump speech with elections due next month.
