Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “finish the job” in Gaza and said that the recognition of a Palestinian state was “insane” as delegations walked out of his address to the UN.
Just days after the UK, France, Canada, Australia, and other countries broke with the US to recognize an independent Palestinian state, Netanyahu called a two-state solution “sheer madness. It’s insane, and we won’t do it.”
“Giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after Oct. 7 is like giving al-Qaeda a state one mile from New York City after Sept. 11,” he said, referring to Hamas’ 2023 attacks.
Photo: EPA
Now 157 of 193 UN member states recognize Palestine as an independent state.
More than 100 diplomats from more than 50 countries walked out as Netanyahu entered the hall, according to a tally by the Washington Post.
Netanyahu gave the speech the morning after US President Donald Trump said he would restrain Netanyahu from annexing territories in the West Bank in retaliation for the expressions of support for Palestinian statehood.
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank... It’s not going to happen,” Trump said.
Right-wing allies of Netanyahu have proposed annexing up to 82 percent of the West Bank, which is formally governed by the Palestinian Authority. UK officials said that they were concerned the US could endorse the move.
Netanyahu did not address the controversial plan on Friday, and his office has said he would only respond after the two meet on Monday at the White House.
Targeting the UK, France and other countries that recognized Palestine, he said: “You didn’t do something right. You did something wrong, horribly wrong.”
More than 22 people were killed in Gaza on Friday ahead of Netanyahu’s speech, Agence France-Presse reported, citing the territory’s civil defense agency. Al-Jazeera reported that as many as 47 Palestinians had been killed since dawn yesterday, including eight in a strike on a tent camp for displaced people in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp.
In the speech, Netanyahu vowed to continue an offensive targeting Gaza City, ignoring international condemnation that it would worsen a humanitarian crisis in Gaza that prosecutors from the International Criminal Court have condemned as a war crime.
“The final remnants of Hamas are holed up in Gaza City,” he said, and Israel “must finish the job” to avoid facing attacks like those on Oct. 7, 2023, “again and again and again.”
Netanyahu also used his speech to deny that Israel was carrying out a genocide in Gaza.
The speech was highly contentious and delivered to a mostly empty room in the general assembly’s grand hall, which has capacity for 1,800 people. Delegations for the US and UK, which remained in attendance, were filled out with junior diplomats as opposed to senior officials.
Netanyahu also issued an ultimatum to the remaining leaders of Hamas, whose ranks have been vastly reduced in the nearly two years since Israel launched its invasion of Gaza.
“Lay down your arms,” he said. “Let my people go. Free the hostages. All of them. The whole 48. Free the hostages now.”
“If you do, you will live. If you don’t, Israel will hunt you down,” he added.
The speech was broadcast on loudspeakers in Gaza, and Netanyahu’s office said it was also transmitted on telephones in the territory that had been hijacked by the Israeli intelligence services. Associated Press reporters inside Gaza said they saw no sign that the speech was broadcast on phones there.
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