Israel’s representative to the United Nations, Danny Dannon, described the withdrawal of representatives of several delegations from the General Assembly hall during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech as a ‘false picture’, while Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Israel’s isolation on the international stage was steadily increasing.
Dannon describes delegations’ withdrawal as a staged media scene
In a post published on the X platform, Dannon said each delegation had six seats in the General Assembly, while it was customary for one representative from each delegation to attend speeches by heads of state. He added that the hall had been exceptionally full on Thursday during the speech by Colombia’s vice-president, which preceded Netanyahu’s address.
Dannon claimed that the representatives of the delegations who left the hall when Netanyahu took to the podium had not entered it to listen to Colombia’s vice-president, but to withdraw during the Israeli speech. He said the aim was to create filmed media footage of the withdrawal that could be widely circulated by international media outlets.
Fidan speaks of widening international isolation
By contrast, Fidan said during a press conference held in New York that Israel’s international isolation was continuing to widen. He referred to what he described as the major role played by ‘firm diplomacy’ in turning the international community’s sentiments into concrete, actionable protests, positions and policies. The Turkish foreign minister added that ‘the injustice and massacres committed by Israel are no longer going unanswered as they were in the past’.
He stressed that Israel was now facing what he described as unprecedented circumstances on both punitive and legal fronts, including proceedings related to the International Court of Justice and criminal courts. Netanyahu delivered his address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday, before a nearly empty hall after a mass withdrawal by representatives of several countries’ delegations.
The withdrawal came in protest against the war in the Gaza Strip, which protesters described as a war of genocide, amid mass demonstrations in the city’s streets. Since 2024, Netanyahu has faced an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The court issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, based on allegations linked to war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Strip.
