Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delivered a defiant speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), attempting to justify his country’s genocide in Gaza and denouncing Western allies for failing to stand by it in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack.
Speaking at UNGA in New York on Friday, the increasingly isolated Israeli leader railed against the “disgraceful decision” by some Western countries in recent days to recognise a Palestinian state.
“It will be a mark of shame on all of you,” he said.
“Your disgraceful decision will encourage terrorism against Jews, and against innocent people everywhere.”
Netanyahu delivered his speech to a sparse audience because many delegates left the General Assembly hall in protest as he made his way towards the stage.
The Israeli leader insisted that, despite the growing international pressure and condemnation of genocide, Israel “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza.
“Western leaders may have buckled under the pressure,” he said. “And I guarantee you one thing: Israel won’t.”
Message to Hamas: Surrender or die
Netanyahu’s speech was also broadcast into Gaza via loudspeakers mounted on Israel’s border with the territory, a fact he acknowledged in his speech, issuing a message directly to the Israeli captives held by Hamas in the territory.
“We have not forgotten you, not even for a second,” he said. “The people of Israel are with you. We will not falter, and we will not rest until we bring all of you home.”
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He said that, thanks to an “unprecedented operation” by the Israeli military, his speech was also being transmitted to the cellphones of people in Gaza, including Hamas leadership.
He issued an ultimatum that they should lay down their weapons and release the captives, or they would die.
‘You have to stand with Israel’
In his speech, Netanyahu — who faces an International Criminal Court warrant over alleged war crimes and growing global criticism to halt his nearly two-year war on Gaza — laid out a familiar narrative.
He detailed the horrors of the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, detailed the “seven-front war” that Israel had since waged, largely alone, against its enemies in the region, and criticised Western allies for failing to back it in what he painted as a shared battle against Islamist radicals who he described as “barbarians at the gate”.
“You can’t appease your way out of jihad,” he said. “You have to stand with Israel.”
Netanyahu wore a badge with a QR code on his lapel and encouraged his audience to scan it to receive Israel’s account of the October 7 attack, which killed at least 1,139 people.
“You too will see why we fight and why we must win. It’s all in here,” he said.
He said that had the United States suffered losses proportionate to those Israel had sustained in an attack, there was no way it would allow the attacker to continue to pose a threat.
Members of the US delegation in attendance, which has been Israel’s staunchest defender at the international organisation and main military backer, could be seen applauding throughout the speech.
Netanyahu has repeatedly used the 2023 attack, which killed at least 1,139 people, to justify continuing the war in Gaza, which has to date killed more than 65,000 people, according to local health authorities.
Denial of genocide
Holding a map titled “The Curse” as a visual aide, he listed off the enemies Israel had dealt with around the region, including Gaza, Yemen, Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Iraqi militia.
He denied Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, as a UN inquiry and a growing number of experts have found, saying Israel’s military would not tell them to evacuate if they were trying to commit genocide.
“Would a country committing genocide plead with the civilian population it is supposedly targeting to get out of harm’s way?” he said.
He also denied Israel was deliberately starving the population of Gaza, where famine has been recorded, blaming Hamas for stealing aid into the territory and selling it to finance the war.
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Western allies ‘caved’
Netanyahu was particularly scathing of Israel’s Western allies, who have increasingly condemned its actions in Gaza and recognised a Palestinian state in a bid to bring about pressure to end the war.
“Giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after October 7 is like giving al-Qaeda a state one mile from New York City after September 11,” Netanyahu said.
He said that “when the going got tough,” many Western countries had “caved”, condemning rather than supporting Israel in response to what he said was pressure from a hostile media, “anti-Semitic mobs” and radical Islamist constituents.
Addressing Western leaders, he said, “You know deep down that Israel is fighting your fight,” and claimed, without evidence, that behind closed doors, leaders had thanked him for his country’s efforts in securing the world from terror.
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