The opening day of the 81st UN General Assembly on Tuesday brought a string of sharp attacks on Israel from world leaders. Israel's delegation walked out of the hall during one speech, and the Prime Minister's Office issued an angry response to another.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, delivering his last General Assembly address before his term ends in December, opened the session. He condemned Hamas's October 7 massacre, then described Israel's response in Gaza as unlike anything he had previously witnessed. He also warned of "the specter of ethnic cleansing" in Judea and Samaria.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan went furthest. He called Gaza "the most inhumane, most shameful concentration camp of our time," a line that prompted Israel's delegation to walk out. Erdogan put the Palestinian death toll in Gaza at 74,000 and attributed it to what he called "state acts of terror by Israel." He urged UN members to recognize a Palestinian state and to increase pressure on Israel.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government of the "genocide of women and children perpetrated by Netanyahu's government in Gaza." He also acknowledged that Israeli civilians had paid a price for Hamas terrorism. Lula condemned Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria as undermining a two-state solution and called for UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese not to be silenced.
French President Emmanuel Macron drew the sharpest Israeli reaction of the day. After criticizing Israeli conduct in Judea and Samaria, he told the assembly: "Hamas has never struck in the West Bank." Netanyahu's office called the statement a "grotesque absurdity" and cited the murder of Netanel Shukrun, a French-Israeli father of six killed by a Hamas-affiliated terrorist on the eve of Yom Kippur. A French diplomatic official later told The Times of Israel that Macron meant Hamas does not govern the West Bank.
Jordan's King Abdullah II accused Israel of forced displacement, which he called a war crime. He said Israel was attempting "to erase Palestinian life and impose a new territorial reality." He also warned that Israel's actions in Syria show its ambitions extend beyond the Palestinian arena, and he described Israel as a regional threat.
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said world leaders had failed to match the scale of the catastrophe in Gaza. He criticized Israeli politicians across the spectrum for promoting the "encouraged emigration" of Gazans, a policy he said amounts to forced displacement.
President Donald Trump's address stood apart from the others. He devoted most of his 38-minute speech to Iran and to what he described as his achievements in Gaza. He mentioned Israel only once and did not mention Netanyahu. Trump will have already left New York by the time Netanyahu arrives Thursday morning, and the two are not scheduled to meet.
Netanyahu is expected to deliver a defiant address to the General Assembly on Thursday. The general debate runs through September 26 and resumes on September 28.
