Netanyahu defends Israel's policies at the UN and criticizes his critics

Benjamin Netanyahu took advantage of the platform of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday to respond to criticism of Israel's policy. In the middle of the campaign for the Israeli legislative elections, the Prime Minister rejected accusations of colonialism. “They accuse Israel, tiny Israel, of colonialism, what colonialism? “, he said, before targeting some of his detractors: “Among them, there are people in Great Britain and France. Hell, they’re the ones who invented the term! »

The Israeli leader also devoted part of his speech to Iran. He claimed that Israel and the United States had prevented Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. “I am committed to stopping the murderous Iranian dictatorship from developing atomic bombs, nuclear weapons to destroy Israel, nuclear weapons that could threaten the entire world,” he said. Benjamin Netanyahu predicted that the Iranian regime would “eventually fall”.

Netanyahu attacks New York mayor

His intervention took place in a tense climate. Like the previous year, dozens of delegation members left the room at the start of his speech. Arriving in New York in the morning, Benjamin Netanyahu was to leave immediately after his speech, at the end of a visit of less than 24 hours. Outside the UN headquarters, demonstrators protested against his presence and several people were arrested, including actress Susan Sarandon.

The Prime Minister also mentioned the car-ramming attack that occurred on Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, during which the son of the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, was seriously injured. “The entire people of Israel […] pray for him,” he said. He also attacked the mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, who has long been committed to the Palestinian cause and who accuses Benjamin Netanyahu of “genocide”. “Since you were elected in this city, many Jews no longer feel safe,” the Israeli leader told him.

The West Bank at the heart of the debates

The occupied West Bank was another central point of his intervention, while settler violence has increased there since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Benjamin Netanyahu minimized the scale of the phenomenon. “What the media covers is a handful of young delinquents,” estimating their number at around 150, notably involved according to him in throwing stones and uprooting olive trees.

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