Netanyahu Calls UN Walkout Delegates 'Moral Cowards,' Names NYC Mayor Mamdani in Combative UNGA Speech

Since President Trump told the General Assembly Tuesday that an Iran deal is possible after the midterms but that the alternative is to "annihilate the Islamic Republic," according to CNN, the UN's General Debate week has kept producing confrontation. Thursday brought the most theatrical moment yet: Netanyahu's address and a mass walkout to greet it.

According to the Associated Press, via CTV News, and confirmed separately by BBC and AAP, dozens of delegates left the hall as Netanyahu approached the rostrum, while Israeli supporters in the viewing gallery cheered. General Assembly president Khalilur Rahman repeatedly called for "order in the hall" as diplomats filed out, per AAP.

Netanyahu didn't let it go. "If there are any other moral cowards who have not yet left the hall, please do so now," he said, according to AAP. He told those who stayed that Israel, in defending itself, was also defending countries whose delegates had just walked out, adding that some of those countries' leaders "even thank us privately for taking out Iran's nukes."

The walkout wasn't spontaneous. AAP reported that the Palestinian Mission to the UN had circulated a message to member countries urging them to bring as many staff as possible and "collectively walk out" once Netanyahu was announced, calling it a message that no one is willing to be "complicit in its genocide and war crimes and illegal occupation." Israel rejects those allegations. A UN commission of inquiry has previously accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, a finding Israel has strongly rejected, according to BBC.

Much of Netanyahu's speech, according to TBS News, was aimed directly at New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has called Netanyahu a "war criminal" and accused Israel of genocide. "Shame on you for distorting the facts. Shame on you for inverting victim and aggressor," Netanyahu said, accusing Mamdani of antisemitism and claiming Jewish New Yorkers no longer feel safe in the city since Mamdani's election. Mamdani has said his criticism of Israeli policy is wrongly conflated with antisemitism and has condemned antisemitism directly, per TBS News. Neither side's underlying claim on whether Israel's Gaza campaign constitutes genocide is something the reporting resolves. Gaza's health ministry says more than 73,920 people have been killed in the territory since Israel's response to Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, which killed roughly 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage, according to BBC.

Netanyahu also held up a pager on stage, reminding the assembly of the day Israel remotely detonated thousands of pagers that had been distributed to Hezbollah in Lebanon. AAP reported that attack wounded more than 3,000 people and killed 12, including two children. "You remember the beepers?" Netanyahu asked the hall, according to TBS News. He also thanked Trump as Israel's "greatest partner" and credited joint action for degrading Iran's nuclear facilities.

Hours earlier, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the same chamber by video from Ramallah after the State Department denied his delegation visas for the second consecutive year, according to The Guardian. The State Department said last week the denial reflects the PA's "failure to reform" and continued activity that "undermine[s] the prospects for peace." Abbas called Israel's settlement expansion and Gaza campaign a "malicious colonial plan" to erase the Palestinian presence and warned against "another Nakba," per The Guardian.

Outside UN headquarters, hundreds of demonstrators gathered with signs reading "End the Genocide," and The Hill reported that New York congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier was arrested during the protests.

The Guardian noted, citing unnamed Netanyahu allies previewing the speech, that the address doubled as a pitch to his domestic base ahead of Israeli elections tentatively expected in October that could determine whether he remains prime minister. Separately, Mamdani had earlier said he was reviewing whether Netanyahu could face arrest in New York under an International Criminal Court warrant, though The Guardian reported he has since tempered that stance, saying he would not attend the protests but would protect demonstrators' right to protest.

Elsewhere in Washington the same day, President Trump began a set of meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, marking the first official state visit by a Chinese leader in more than a decade, according to The Hill, with a state dinner planned at the White House and lawmakers pressing Trump to raise trade, AI and human rights concerns directly with Xi. Special envoy Steve Witkoff said U.S. and Iranian officials also continued indirect talks through mediators on the sidelines of the Assembly this week, describing the sessions as constructive, according to Fox News. No agreement between Washington and Tehran has been announced.