MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Netanyahu rejects genocide allegations before an assembly emptied by dozens of delegations

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday called genocide allegations against his country over the war in Gaza “the biggest lie of the century”, in an address to the United Nations General Assembly that dozens of delegations left before he began speaking.

“If there are any other moral cowards who haven't yet left this hall, please do so now,” he said as he opened his remarks. The walkout was led by representatives of Arab, Muslim and African countries. Figures differ by source: Foreign Policy counted more than a hundred delegates; Fox News, 77 delegations. The US delegation remained seated, and members of the Israeli party shouted “Am Yisrael Chai”.

Netanyahu argued that Israel acted to avoid becoming the victim of a genocide rather than to commit one, and linked the accusations to growing persecution of Jews. He described the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 as “the darkest day in Israel's history” and “the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust”, comparing the roughly 1,200 victims to “40,000 innocent Americans slaughtered in less than 24 hours”, sixteen times the toll of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

On the legal position: the International Criminal Court is investigating Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity, not genocide. There is also a genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice, brought by South Africa and joined by other states, with no ruling on the merits. A growing number of specialists and the International Association of Genocide Scholars hold that Israel has committed that crime; Israel rejects this.

The prime minister defended the campaign against Iran, launched alongside the United States in February. Attacking that country “was one of the easiest decisions I've ever had to make”, he said, arguing that in defending itself Israel “is also defending many of the countries whose delegates just left this hall”, whose leaders, he said, thank him privately. He thanked Donald Trump for what he described as an act “to save civilisation”, and repeated: “We will continue to win because we have no other choice.” He noted that a country the size of New Jersey was fighting a war on seven fronts.

On settler violence in the West Bank, which has prompted sanctions from several Western countries led by the United Kingdom, he described those responsible as “a handful of juvenile delinquents”, around 150, accountable for “maybe two or three deaths” so far this year. These are his figures, disputed by UN monitoring bodies. He also attacked New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, calling him “the antisemitic mayor of New York”.

Hours earlier, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had addressed the assembly by video from Ramallah, after the United States denied him a visa for a second consecutive year. The assembly had voted 152 to 3 to allow him to speak remotely; the United States, Israel and Paraguay voted against. Abbas described Israel's campaign as a “genocidal war that has created an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe” and denounced a policy of “racial discrimination, ethnic cleansing and terrorism” aimed at forcing Palestinians off their land. “Do not allow a new Nakba, do not allow more massacres,” he said, asking “how much longer some states will remain silent about Israel or continue supplying it with weapons”.

Netanyahu spoke a month before Israeli elections in which his continuity in government is at stake.