Netanyahu denies Gaza famine as delegates walk out in protest at UN Assembly

A defiant Benjamin Netanyahu railed against a virtually empty UN General Assembly this Friday, after more than two-thirds of the delegates had already left the room. Some European delegations, including the Spanish one, had not even attended the session, in a concerted effort to distance themselves from Israel.

But the prime minister did not seem to acknowledge the jeers and the blatant contempt of dozens of delegates who walked out. On the contrary, in an energetic and threatening tone, he asserted that his army would annihilate Hamas in Gaza and that his country will not commit “ a national suicide” by allowing the creation of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu harshly criticized the countries that recognized Palestinian statehood during this General Assembly. “This will be an indelible mark of shame for all of you,” he said, citing, among others, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Netanyahu also denied that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, as asserted by an independent commission appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, and claimed that the famine that humanitarian organizations, led by the UN, have been denouncing in Gaza since August does not exist, thanks to the Israeli delivery of “two million tons of food, 3,000 calories a day” per Palestinian. Hamas, he added, “has stolen 80% of the aid convoys” to sell them and finance itself.

The head of the most extremist government in Israel’s history talked about the hostages still held in Gaza—48 in total, of whom only about 20 are estimated to be alive. Using loudspeakers deployed by the army in the Strip, Netanyahu named the survivors and asserted that if Hamas returns them, the war could end instantly. This message is difficult to reconcile with his assertion that Israel will “finish the job” with Hamas, not only for Israel’s benefit, but for the rest of the world.

“Israel is doing the dirty work,” he asserted, arguing that the fight against Hamas, and on the other six regional fronts—against Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, Iran, Iraq and so on—will benefit everyone. The Israeli Prime Minister boasted of victories on all of these fronts, except for Gaza, a task—more of a mission, judging by his tone— still in progress.

Allowing the creation of a Palestinian state contiguous to Israel, he stressed, would be like giving al-Qaeda a state in the U.S. after 9/11. “And we’re not going to do that,” Netanyahu continued. Erecting himself as the savior of the civilized world in the face of the terrorist threat in the Middle East, he lashed out at Israel’s critics, accusing world leaders of giving in “when things got difficult” for his own country.

Netanyahu used a map he already used in his speech last year, that of the axis of evil radiating from Iran, as well as some poster boards with a childish trivia game about the aforementioned axis’ threats to Israel and the world. He made no specific reference to the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against him, which forced his plane to divert its route to avoid Spanish and French airspace. However, he did allude to the accusations of genocide by the Human Rights Council’s independent commission.

The nearly two years of war have claimed 220,000 victims, as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas recalled on Thursday, including more than 65,000 dead. But for Netanyahu, one cannot and should not speak of genocide, because Israel has sent “thousands of leaflets and text messages to [Gazati] cell phones asking civilians to leave Gaza City, and Hamas told them no, to stay. Would a country that commits genocide ask its civilian population to leave? Did the Nazis ask the Jews to leave?” he asked rhetorically, clinging to what is probably Israel’s only remaining moral and historical alibi: the memory of the Holocaust.

Netanyahu announced on Monday that he will officially address the recognition of Palestine by a dozen countries upon his return to Israel after participating in the UN and meeting with US President Donald Trump. Many predict that this response will be the de facto annexation of the West Bank, already crippled by a growing number of illegal settlements. If this occurs, it would permanently bury the possibility of a Palestinian state by depriving it of territorial continuity. Trump assured leaders of Arab and Muslim countries this week that he will not allow such a move. According to various sources, Netanyahu will seek Trump’s opinion on Monday in Washington, in their fourth bilateral meeting since the Republican took office.

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