Dozens of delegates from different countries walked out of the hall during Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations in protest at Israeli policies, in a scene that international media said became the most notable image of the event.<\/p>\n
Images of empty seats and the mass departure of diplomats quickly spread through media coverage. Ireland’s RT\u00c9 reported that the move significantly affected the atmosphere of the meeting.<\/p>\n
In response to the protest, Netanyahu called the dissenting diplomats \u201cmoral cowards\u201d and urged any opponents in the room to leave the session if they sided with the protesters.<\/p>\n
Reuters reported that the Israeli prime minister delivered the speech as he faced global criticism over the Gaza war and was also preparing for the October 27 election. According to the news agency, his 40-minute speech, broadcast live on four major Israeli television networks, had an election-season tone and was largely devoted to defending his cabinet’s performance in regional wars.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu also used theatrical props during the speech, including holding up a pager linked to the operation involving the explosion of communication devices in Lebanon and displaying a Starlink satellite internet receiver. He described the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran as a \u201cbattle on several fronts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera said the mass walkout by delegates was the most important scene of the speech. The network and other media outlets stressed that the main focus of coverage was not the content of Netanyahu’s remarks, but his obvious isolation in the UN chamber.<\/p>\n
At the same time as the speech, hundreds of people gathered near the UN headquarters in New York and chanted against the Gaza war and US weapons support for Israel. Reuters wrote that some of the protesters blocked streets and police arrested several of them.<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera also reported the presence of activists, artists and political figures at the rally. According to Reuters, growing international pressure on Israel after the Gaza war was also reflected in the delegations’ walkout at the start of Netanyahu’s speech.<\/p>\n
The United Nations in New York is the main venue for General Assembly meetings, and the annual speeches by world leaders at the body are usually among the most important diplomatic events in the world. In such a setting, the mass walkout by delegates is seen as an unusual sign of political protest against a formal address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dozens of delegates walked out during Benjamin Netanyahu’s UN speech in protest at Israel’s policies, drawing global attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}