Defiant Netanyahu Denounces Palestine Recognition, to a Mostly Empty U.N. Hall

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel ruled out calls for a Palestinian state during a combative speech at the United Nations in New York on Friday, saying the recognition of Palestine by more than 150 countries was “disgraceful” and vowing to “finish the job” against Hamas in the war in the Gaza Strip.

Mr. Netanyahu has for years rejected Palestinian statehood, but his address on Friday, to a largely empty hall that seemed a metaphor for his country’s diplomatic isolation, came at an especially tense time for his country. Israel has faced growing denunciation of its devastating conduct of the war in Gaza, and major Western nations like Britain, France and Canada have recently recognized Palestine, after years of holding out against calls to do so.

“Israel will not allow you to shove a terror state down our throats,” Mr. Netanyahu told the sparse gathering. He said accepting an independent Palestine would be “national suicide” for Israel and that it would be a “mark of shame” for the countries that supported it, a group that includes the vast majority of the U.N. membership.

Mr. Netanyahu’s speech was the first at Friday’s session of the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, and many delegates and leaders either had not arrived, were boycotting or walked out when he took the podium. The image of the Israeli prime minister speaking to a hall where much of the applause came from his own delegation seemed to underline the fears by some Israelis that the country is heading toward pariah status.

For his journey to New York from Israel, Mr. Netanyahu took an unusually long route, avoiding the airspace of two European countries that have sharply criticized Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, according to flight tracking data.

His office did not provide an explanation for the circuitous route that added about an hour to his flight. But the prime minister is the subject of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges related to the war in Gaza. The countries he avoided, France and Spain, are both signatories to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the I.C.C., which could make him subject to arrest if he were to land in their territory. The United States and Israel have not joined the treaty.

The Israeli authorities sought and were granted permission to fly through French airspace, according to a French diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation. But Mr. Netanyahu seemed to be taking no chances.

As the prime minister spoke on Friday, hundreds of protesters on the streets of New York City denounced the war in Gaza, which will soon reach the two-year mark. The war has shocked and angered even Israel’s closest allies with its vast destruction and a death toll that Gaza health officials say exceeds 65,000, both civilians and combatants. Most of the territory’s structures have been destroyed or damaged, and hunger is widespread.

Mr. Netanyahu posited that “much of the world no longer remembers Oct. 7,” the Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and set off the war in Gaza. “But we remember,” he said, adding that 48 hostages out of the more than 250 taken during those attacks remained in Gaza, including 20 who are alive.

He read off the names of those 20 hostages believed to be still living and said the war could end “right now” if Hamas agreed to Israel’s demands of freeing the hostages, disarming and relinquishing what power they retain in the territory.

Mr. Netanyahu’s tone throughout his speech, which lasted around 40 minutes, was defiant. He said Israel would continue to “hunt down” its enemies, describing them all as part of a network led by Iran. He recounted the attacks that Israel has led against its enemies in Iran, Lebanon and Yemen over the past year.

He made light of the covert Israeli operation a year ago that detonated thousands of exploding pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, killing dozens of people and wounding many more.

“You remember those beepers, those pagers?” the prime minister said. “We paged Hezbollah and believe me they got the message.”

In Gaza, Mr. Netanyahu said Israel was doing “everything it can to get civilians out of harm’s way,” denying the charge of genocide lodged against his country at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and backed this month by a United Nations commission.

Israel’s evacuation orders for civilians in Gaza are proof that the country is not committing genocide, Mr. Netanyahu said. “Did the Nazis ask the Jews to kindly leave, go out?” he asked.

Human rights groups and experts say that, in fact, mass displacement is often a feature of genocide.

Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, accused Israel of genocide and war crimes in his own U.N. address on Thursday, while denouncing the Oct. 7 attack and insisting that Hamas would have no role in governing a Palestinian state. Mr. Abbas spoke by video link, after the United States denied him a visa to attend in person.

Members of Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing governing coalition have called for annexation of part or all of the occupied West Bank, which is widely seen as the core of a Palestinian state, and Gaza. That has been a widely discussed topic among Arab leaders at the General Assembly, who oppose annexation vehemently.

President Trump, Israel’s most important ally, on Thursday said in the Oval Office, “I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.” Mr. Trump, who is eager to end the war in Gaza and claim credit for the peace, said: “There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now.”

Mr. Netanyahu, who is scheduled to meet with Mr. Trump at the White House on Monday, did not mention annexation in his speech.

Mr. Abbas, in his speech on Thursday, had declared, “Palestine is ours.”

Reporting was contributed by Farnaz Fassihi, Andy Newman, Adam Rasgon and Olivia Bensimon.