Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the U.N. General Assembly’s general debate on Thursday, and several delegates walked out of the hall as he took the stage, according to the United Nations’ own summary of the session. CNN reported that a large number of diplomats left the room while others stood and applauded the Israeli leader. Netanyahu addressed the walkout directly, saying, “If there are any other moral cowards who haven’t yet left this hall, please do so now.” Later in the speech, he singled out New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani by name.
What Netanyahu said about the mayor
Netanyahu accused Mamdani of making Jews feel unsafe in New York City, according to the U.N. summary. A transcript of the speech, published by the Jewish Virtual Library, has him referring to the mayor’s office in harsh terms and accusing Mamdani of falsely claiming Israel has committed genocide and of trying to block his visit. CNN reported that Netanyahu accused Mamdani of antisemitism. Netanyahu also made further personal accusations against the mayor and people close to him.
He told the assembly, “Shame on you for distorting the facts,” and said “many Jews no longer feel safe in New York,” adding, “You can’t silence the truth.”
The mayor’s response
Mamdani responded in a written statement published by CBS News at 3:52 p.m. EDT Thursday: “As he has done time and again, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians. Yet no lie can change the fact that he remains the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Shortly before Netanyahu spoke, Mamdani had shared a video showing him planting an olive tree at Gracie Mansion together with Palestinian families from Gaza, CBS reported.
The rest of the speech
According to the U.N.’s summary, Netanyahu also defended Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, calling the decision to carry them out “one of the easiest decisions” he had made, and described the Oct. 7 attack. He called President Trump Israel’s greatest partner. Rejecting accusations that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, he said, “Israel didn’t commit genocide. Israel prevented genocide.” He accused Qatar of brainwashing young minds through Al-Jazeera and accused Türkiye of hosting Hamas. He also held up a Starlink satellite device that he said he would leave behind for Iranian delegates. CNN noted that the Iranian delegation was absent from the chamber during his remarks.
Background
During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani had pledged that his administration would move to enforce an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Netanyahu if the Israeli leader visited New York, CBS News reported. But in a social media video in July, he said the city lacks the independent legal authority to enforce the warrant and that his administration had reviewed every legal avenue, CBS reported. After concluding the city could not act on the warrant, the mayor urged federal authorities to detain Netanyahu instead, CBS reported.
ICC judges issued the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant in 2024, finding what the court called “reasonable grounds” to believe the two had deprived the civilian population of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid, according to CBS News. Israel has strongly condemned the warrants; CBS reported that Netanyahu’s office rejected the warrants in 2024, calling the charges false and the court a biased political body. The United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court, CNN reported.
Nearly two dozen people were taken into police custody at protests in New York on Thursday, CBS News reported.
The exchange comes as Netanyahu faces what CNN described as critical elections in Israel next month.