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Everyone Walks Out of U.N. Before Netanyahu Says a Single Word
Dozens of representatives from participating member countries staged a mass walkout at the United Nations Thursday, just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walked up to the podium to begin speaking.
There are 193 countries in the United Nations General Assembly. It was the second year in a row that the delegation protested Netanyahu’s appearance. As nearly everybody in the room stood up and filed out of the main hall, others remained but stood up and applauded the international protest.
Meanwhile, around the room, supporters of the Israeli leader began chanting, “Am Yisrael Chai,” a refrain that translates to “the nation of Israel lives.”
Netanyahu’s appearance came hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke to the General Assembly. Abbas decried what he described as Israel’s “malicious colonial scheme” to steal and control Gaza and the West Bank, and force Palestinians off the land.
> Room empties out at the UN as Netanyahu begins his speech. pic.twitter.com/plGg9wDRQ7
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> — Acyn (@Acyn) September 24, 2026
Outside on the street, police were arresting participants of another protest. Hundreds of protesters with Jewish Voices for Peace—including celebrities Elliot Page, Susan Sarandon, Hannah Einbinder, and Chelsea Manning—blocked the U.N.’s entrance road, chanting, “We charged you with genocide, Netanyahu you can’t hide.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani reiterated calls for Netanyahu’s arrest ahead of the General Assembly.
“When it comes to Benjamin Netanyahu, I have described him as I believe him to be: a war criminal and an architect of a horrific genocide of the Palestinian people,” the mayor told CNN on Monday.
The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest in 2024, charging him with war crimes after Hamas attacked an Israeli music festival on October 7, 2023. Earlier this month, Haaretz reported that Netanyahu received dozens of warnings ahead of the impending attack but chose to ignore them.
“If the International Criminal Court deems someone worthy of an arrest because of a violation of those laws, then who are we to say that anyone should be above that? And I think very clearly that everyone should be held accountable to it,” Mamdani said.
