Israeli Prime Minister and war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, as demonstrators were being arrested, protesting his presence in New York City.
On Thursday, after Netanyahu arrived in the U.S., protesters chanted “Netanyahu, you can’t hide… we charge you with genocide” outside the Loews Regency New York Hotel where the Israeli leader was staying.
Friday morning, as Netanyahu took the podium at the United Naitons, there was a ruckus in the audience that the presiding diplomat had to shout: “Order, please.”
The two speakers who preceded Netanyahu on Friday each made a point of calling out Israel for its actions. “Mr. Netanyahu, stop this war now,” Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said as he closed his remarks, pounding the podium.
And Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, speaking just before the Israeli leader, declared of Gaza: “This is not just a conflict. This is systematic slaughter of innocent people of Palestine.” He also struck the rostrum to audible applause.
In his address before the General Assembly, Netanyahu signaled there would be no immediate truce in his country’s rapidly escalating conflict in Lebanon, as Israeli officials said they were preparing for a potential ground incursion.
He used a large portion of the speech to claim of threats by — and to threaten — Iran, suggesting that Israel has had to defend itself on fronts of conflict organized by Tehran.
“There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach, and that is true of the entire Middle East,” he said.
Benjamin Netanyahu used his speech to condemn the United Nations, calling it a “swamp of antisemitic bile” that needs to be drained — language that echoed a frequent refrain by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Netanyahu also called the United Nations an “anti-Israel flat-earth society.” He pointed toward investigations into Israeli actions launched by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court — which is not a United Nations body. He repeated frequent claims that antisemitism drives the United Nations to single out Israel.
Netanyahu wrapped up his speech by quoting the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, saying that Israel will not need to rage against the dying of the light “because the torch of Israel” will keep shining bright. “Am Yisrael Chai!” he concluded in Hebrew, before repeating and expanding on it in English. “The people of Israel live. Now, tomorrow and forever!
Protests against Israeli’s genocidal aggression against Gaza and Lebanon continue in New York City, Washington, DC and other U.S. cities.
