Israeli leader has said no to Palestinian stateNetanyahu under pressure from hostages’ families, Israeli publicTrump opposes Israeli annexation of West BankMicheál Martin says he doesn’t know ‘how Netanyahu sleeps at night’
Mr Martin was speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York today, where he said there can be no business as usual in the face of genocide” in Gaza.
“We will act to prevent those members of the Government of Israel who have been instrumental in fomenting the unfolding disaster in Gaza from entering our country”, Mr Martin told the UN during his address.
Mr Martin was speaking after delegates from dozens of countries staged a mass walkout in protest as Benjamin Netanyahu took to the stage to deliver remarks. His speech was heard by a fraction of UN member states, but he told those who did stick around, that he had instructed the IDF to erect huge loudspeakers so it could be heard across Gaza.
The Taoiseach told a more full gallery that it was incumbent on UN member states to take action and “employ all means reasonably available to them so as to prevent genocide as far as possible,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the United Nations General Assembly. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty
He also pointed to a UN Human Rights Commission’s report last week that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
“All members of this United Nations must reflect on what they can do, and I especially call on those who have influence to use it urgently to maximum effect,” he said.
“I call on those who have provided and who continue to provide Israel with the means necessary to prosecute this war to reflect carefully on the implications of their actions and the consequences for the Palestinian people,” he said.
“There cannot be business as usual in the face of genocide,” he said.
“We are witnessing hunger being used as an instrument of war. Babies starving to death while aid rots at the border. People shot while desperately seeking food for their families. The deliberate targeting and destruction of schools, hospitals, mosques, cultural institutions,” he said.
Mr Martin asked countries with influence over Israel to reconsider their role in the ongoing nearly two-year war.
“All members of this United Nations must reflect on what more they can do. And I especially call on those who have influence to use it urgently to maximum effect,” Martin said.
“There can be no impunity.”
Many of the delegates of the world’s nations walked out in protest this afternoon as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to the stage at the UN General Assembly on Friday.
We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity.
Please review your details and accept them to load the content
Netanyahu sharply denounced Western countries for embracing Palestinian statehood and accused them of buckling under pressure from activists and others who have accused Israel of war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.
The Israeli leader pushed back in harsh terms against a flurry of diplomatic moves by leading US allies that deepened Israel’s international isolation over its conduct of the nearly two-year-old war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
“This week, the leaders of France, Britain, Australia, Canada and other countries unconditionally recognised a Palestinian state. They did so after the horrors committed by Hamas on October 7 — horrors praised on that day by nearly 90pc of the Palestinian population.”
With more countries joining the list of those endorsing Palestinian independence, the most right-wing government in Israeli history has made its strongest declaration yet that there will be no Palestinian state as it pushes on with its fight against Hamas following the militants’ October 7, 2023, rampage in Israel. Hamas-led fighters killed some 1,200 people according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s military response has killed more than 65,000 people in Gaza, according to local health officials, and left much of the territory in ruins.
“Over time, many world leaders buckled. They buckled under the pressure of a biased media, radical Islamist constituencies and antisemitic mobs. There’s a familiar saying, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Well, for many countries here, when the going got tough, you caved,” Netanyahu said.
“Behind closed doors, many of the leaders who publicly condemn us privately thank us. They tell me how much they value Israel’s superb intelligence services that have prevented, time and again, terrorist attacks in their capitals.”
‘I don’t know how he can sleep at night’
Following the meeting, the Taoiseach said he does not know how Mr Netanyahu can sleep at night, while being responsible for the carnage in Gaza.
Mr Martin said the comments made by Mr Netanyahu were to be expected but added that the Israeli leader was blind to the atrocities in Gaza.
“It seems to me that he’s completely blind to the horrors of children who have been burned, who’ve been bombed, who’ve been maimed and mutilated in Gaza. And I don’t understand how a person could go to sleep at night being responsible for such trauma and such carnage in Gaza,” Mr Martin said.
“As I said, Hamas must be held to account for what it did, but not the entirety of the Palestinian people. That cannot be a continuation of the collective punishment of Palestinian youth and that’s the point,” he added.
Mr Martin said the speech by Mr Netanyahu was “deeply, deeply disappointing” and an attempt by Israel at propaganda.
Both leaders’ speeches took place the same morning US President Donald Trump told media that he believed a deal on Gaza was close.
“It’s looking like we have a deal on Gaza. I think it’s a deal that gets the hostages back, it’s going to be a deal that ends the war,” Mr Trump said as he left the White House for the Ryder Cup.
Asked about the speculation of a potential deal coming at the same time Mr Netanyahu reaffirmed Israel’s determination to “finish the job”, Mr Martin said there needed to be substance behind the speculation.
“We all know from history that when we’re in the depths of despair, when things are very bleak, peace can emerge. That’s the hopeful application one can out on that,” Mr Martin said.
“Until we see the emergence of substance behind all of the speculation, it’s very clear that the destruction and the catastrophe continues.
“Most ordinary human beings are shocked that war can rain down at the children of Gaza and the innocents of Gaza. It’s beyond comprehension,” he added.
During his speech, Mr Martin said doing nothing is not neutrality but complicity.
Speaking to reporters after, the Mr Martin said it was time for countries to “step up”.
“There are clear regulatory frameworks governing all countries, in respect of convention, in respect of international humanitarian law,” Mr Martin said.
“We all have obligations to adhere to international humanitarian law and ensure that that law is adhered to too, and certainly countries need to step up,” he added.
Frustration
Frustration over Israel’s military siege and US President Donald Trump’s unwillingness to rein Netanyahu in has spilled into the open at the annual New York gathering where, in a dramatic shift, Australia, Britain, Canada and France and several other nations embraced a Palestinian state.
They said such action was needed to preserve the prospect for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and help bring the war to a close.
Netanyahu followed to the rostrum Arab and Muslim leaders who this week accused Israel of genocide and war crimes in Gaza. The Israeli government has vehemently denied this.
The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in the Gaza war. Israel rejects the court’s jurisdiction and denies committing war crimes in Gaza. Netanyahu rebutted on Friday what he called “the false charge of genocide.”
Hamas has offered to release all remaining hostages – only about 20 of whom are believed to be alive out of a total of 48 — in exchange for Israel agreeing to end the war and withdrawing from Gaza.
“Much of the world no longer remembers October 7. But we remember,” Netanyahu said. Speaking in Hebrew, the Israeli leader directed his remarks to the hostages still held in Gaza: “We’ve not forgotten you — not even for a second.”
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, rejecting calls from some far-right politicians in Israel who want to extend sovereignty over the area and snuff out hopes for a Palestinian state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced some pressure from allies to annex the West Bank, prompting alarm among Arab leaders, some of whom met on Tuesday with Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin speaks during the United Nations General Assembly. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images.
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – September 26th
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Nope, I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now,” he said.
France, Britain, Canada, Australia and Portugal are among the countries that have recognised a Palestinian state in the last few days, in part to help keep the possibility of a two-state solution alive. Israel has condemned the moves.
Trump made the comments as Netanyahu was arriving in New York to deliver an address to the United Nations on Friday.
Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister would wait until he returns to Israel to address Trump’s remark. Israeli settlements have grown in size and number since Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war. They stretch deep into the territory with a system of roads and other infrastructure under Israeli control, further slicing up the land.
A widely condemned Israeli settlement plan known as the E1 project, which would bisect the occupied West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, received final approval in August. It will cut across land that the Palestinians seek for a state.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, an ultra-nationalist in the ruling right-wing coalition that keeps Netanyahu in power, said at the time that a Palestinian state is “being erased from the table.”
Arab and Muslim countries warned Trump during a meeting earlier this week about the grave consequences of any annexation of the West Bank — a message the U.S. president “understands very well,” according to Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud.
About 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in a move not recognised by most countries.
Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinian children killed in an Israeli strike on a building in Gaza where displaced people were sheltering. Photo: Reuters/Ebrahim Hajjaj
Israel refuses to cede control of the West Bank, a position it says has been reinforced since Hamas stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. About 48 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive, are still being held.
Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law.
Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the area and saying the settlements provide strategic depth and security.
Gaza deal
While international leaders gather at the United Nations in New York, the U.S. presented a 21-point Middle East peace plan in a bid to end the nearly two-year-long war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
It was shared with leaders and officials from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan on Tuesday, according to U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Trump, who remains Israel’s staunchest ally on the world stage, said that he spoke with representatives from Middle Eastern nations and Netanyahu on Thursday and that a deal on Gaza could happen soon.
“We want the hostages back, we want the bodies back and we want to have peace in that region. So we had some very good talks,” he said.
Israel has drawn global condemnation over its war in Gaza, which is nearing the two-year mark with no ceasefire in sight. The conflict has caused major destruction and killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities.
A global hunger monitor says part of the territory is suffering from famine.
On the ground, Israeli forces advanced deeper into Gaza City on Thursday and Israeli strikes killed at least 19 people across Gaza, local health authorities said.
International efforts are also continuing to send assistance to help civilians as Israel appears increasingly isolated.
Italy and Spain on Thursday deployed naval ships to assist an international aid flotilla that has come under drone attack while trying to deliver aid to Gaza. The Global Sumud Flotilla is using about 50 civilian boats to try to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.