At the UN, a combative Netanyahu slams his critics

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, embroiled in a difficult re-election campaign, on Thursday launched a scathing attack on Israel's critics amid mounting criticism of violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

"They accuse Israel, tiny Israel, of colonialism, what colonialism?", exclaimed Benjamin Netanyahu from the UN podium. "Among them are people in Great Britain and France. Good heavens, they're the ones who invented the term!", he said.

He stated that he had prevented Iran, jointly with the United States, from developing nuclear weapons.

"I have pledged to prevent the murderous Iranian dictatorship from developing atomic bombs, nuclear weapons intended to destroy Israel, nuclear weapons capable of threatening the entire world," he said.

He also predicted that the Iranian regime "will eventually fall".

As in previous years, dozens of delegation members left the room in protest when he began to speak.

"If there are still cowards in this room who have not left the premises, let them do so now," the Israeli leader said before beginning his speech.

Mr. Netanyahu arrived in New York this morning and is due to leave immediately afterward, making a whirlwind visit of less than 24 hours. Unusually, no meetings with American officials are scheduled.

Addressing the General Assembly, he referred to Wednesday's car-ramming attack in the occupied West Bank in which the son of the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, was seriously wounded. "The entire people of Israel (...) are praying for him," Netanyahu said.

And as he had announced, he again attacked the mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, a long-time activist for the Palestinian cause, whom he accuses of supporting Hamas, repeating three times "shame on you".

"Since you were elected in this city, many Jews no longer feel safe," he said, accusing the mayor of being "anti-Semitic" and spreading "lies" about a genocide in Israel.

Mr. Mamdani, who belongs to the left wing of the Democratic Party, accuses the Israeli Prime Minister of "genocide".

Earlier this year, the mayor of New York said he was considering arresting the Israeli at the UN summit, before admitting he was unable to execute an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for the prime minister for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Dozens of protesters gathered along First Avenue, which runs alongside the UN headquarters in Manhattan, chanting "Netanyahu you can't hide, you are wanted for genocide."

On the campaign trail for the October 27 parliamentary elections, the Prime Minister, at the head of the most right-wing government in Israel's history, has launched his country into a war on several fronts (Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran) and intensified settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, where settler violence has increased since the bloody attack carried out by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023.

- "Colonial Project" -

Before him, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, forced to speak by video after being denied a visa by the United States, said that Israeli policies were no longer content with undermining the two-state solution but were now threatening "the very life and existence" of his people.

The Palestinian leader also criticized the United States' decision to ban him, as it did last year, from entering American soil, denouncing "punitive measures without legal basis".

Mr. Netanyahu's speech comes as several foreign leaders, including Emmanuel Macron, have used the UN platform this week to criticize the policies of the Israeli government.

The French president criticized Israeli actions in the West Bank, where, he said, "Hamas has never been active."

Israel's response was scathing, denouncing the "grotesque absurdity" of Mr. Macron's remarks.

The Israeli leader rejected these criticisms and downplayed the situation in the West Bank.

"What the media are covering is a handful of young delinquents," he said, adding that there are about 150 of them "throwing stones, digging up olive trees."

Many Western countries, including Canada, France and the United Kingdom, have been denouncing the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank for months and have imposed sanctions against Israel.