By Maryam Qarehgozlou Over the past week, at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), world leaders seized the opportunity to rally in ...
By Maryam Qarehgozlou
Over the past week, at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), world leaders seized the opportunity to rally in support of Palestinians and condemn the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister, the architect and mastermind of the mass murder of Palestinians, was greeted with boos and a near-empty hall as attendees, with clenched fists, walked out in protest.
It came during the annual gathering of the heads of state marking the UNGA’s 80th session in New York, where the plight of Palestinians amid the two-year genocide dominated the discussions.
From Iran to Colombia to Chile to South Africa and Spain, world leaders spoke in unison, calling for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and urging the establishment of a Palestinian state.
As they spoke, the Zionist regime pressed on with its ground offensive in Gaza City, claiming the lives of at least 661 Palestinians across the besieged territory in the opening week of the UNGA summit.
Adding his voice to the chorus of condemnation against the Israeli regime, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva delivered one of the session’s most forceful and impassioned addresses.
Speaking on Tuesday, he said the ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, which was launched in October 2023, “would not have happened without the complicity of those who can prevent it.”
“No situation is more emblematic of the disproportionate and illegal use of force than the one occurring in Palestine,” Lula asserted. “Nothing justifies the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
He painted a devastating picture of the human cost, stressing that tens of thousands of Palestinian children are buried under the rubble — an act that, he said, was also burying “international law.”
The Brazilian leader warned that the “Palestinian people are at risk of disappearing” and would only survive “with an independent state.”
Gaza genocide and UN complicity
South African President Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa echoed that sense of urgency, telling the assembly that “there is a growing consensus that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.”
He highlighted the historic genocide case South Africa brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last year, noting that even the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry recently concluded Israel was guilty of committing genocide in the Palestinian territory.
Ramaphosa reminded delegates that nations committed to the UN Charter had “the ultimate responsibility to ensure and protect the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination.”
“As Palestinians continue to face genocide and famine, we have a duty to act. South Africa has acted in the interest of saving lives by insisting that the International Court of Justice should make a ruling that indeed, genocide is being committed in Gaza and that it should stop. And we stand here to say it must stop,” he said to the audience of world leaders.
The South African leader also turned his attention to the UN itself, criticizing the Security Council as “ineffective” in fulfilling its mandate to maintain international peace and security.
“As the security and humanitarian situations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Gaza, and elsewhere deteriorate,” he noted, “it is a matter of great concern that there are countries that continue to violate international law, and also defy the United Nations resolutions and rulings, also from bodies like the International Court of Justice.”
Ramaphosa lamented the erosion of the Security Council’s credibility and its failures to ensure accountability and uphold international law. The recognition of Palestine by 142 countries and counting, he said, showed a “global majority” determined to see Palestinians live in peace.
“The long-overdue announcement by an increasing number of countries to recognize the State of Palestine is a testament to this determination,” he emphasised.
During this year's UNGA summit, several Western countries, including Australia, France, and the United Kingdom, formally recognized the State of Palestine.
Netanyahu should face justice
Chile’s President Gabriel Boric pushed further, making a striking historical comparison that underscored the urgency of the moment as Palestinians continue to die from Israeli strikes every day.
He told the assembly that Israel’s targeting of innocent Palestinians in Gaza, including women and children, was comparable to the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust.
“In 2025, thousands of innocent people lost their lives simply on the grounds of being Palestinian. 80 years ago, the same thing happened. Millions lost their lives simply for being Jewish,” he said.
The firebrand Chilean president did not stop there, calling for Netanyahu to face justice.
“I want to see Netanyahu and those responsible for the genocide against the Palestinian people brought to the ICJ and other international courts,” he declared.
In one of the most fiery addresses of the week, Colombian President Gustavo Petro demanded an international armed intervention to stop Israel’s nearly two-year genocide in Gaza.
Noting that “diplomacy has already played its part in the case of Gaza,” he dismissed negotiations as futile while “every second a missile falls and destroys the bodies of innocent babies in Palestine.”
“Every day that passes, more children are bombed, every veto [by the Security Council] means more bombs; every veto means more deaths,” he warned.“We need a powerful army of the countries that do not accept genocide,” Petro stated in his speech.
Army to liberate Palestine
The Colombian president urged UN member nations to marshal “weapons and armies” to liberate Palestine, remarks that sparked widespread attention and debate across Western media.
“I invite the armies of Asia, the great Slavic people who defeated Hitler with great heroism, and the Latin American armies of BolÃvar; we’ve had enough words; it’s time for BolÃvar’s sword of liberty or death,” Petro said, referring to the 19th-century Latin American independence hero Simón BolÃvar.
Petro linked Israel’s destruction of Gaza to US militarism in the Western Hemisphere, saying Washington and NATO are “killing democracy and helping to revive tyranny and totalitarianism on a global scale.”
He directly attacked US President Donald Trump, saying he “not only lets missiles fall on young people in the Caribbean; he not only imprisons and chains migrants, but he also allows missiles to be launched at children, young people, women, and the elderly in Gaza.”
“He becomes complicit in genocide—because it is genocide, and we must shout it again and again. This chamber is a silent witness and an accomplice to a genocide in today’s world," Petro remarked.
“Humanity must stop the genocide in Gaza; it cannot allow another day of genocide, nor can it let Netanyahu and his allies in the United States and Europe get away with it.”
Petro also addressed pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside UN headquarters in New York on Thursday, calling for a global armed force to liberate Palestinians, and urged US soldiers “not to point their guns at people, disobey the orders of Trump, obey the orders of humanity.”
US State Department said it would revoke Petro’s visa after he joined the pro-Palestinian rally.
He dismissed the US decision to revoke his visa and said Washington is violating international law over his criticism of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Petro’s fiery speech reflected years of escalating tension with the Israeli regime. Back in October 2023, his decision to send humanitarian aid to Gaza had already sparked a diplomatic fallout with Israel.
He also withdrew his ambassador from Israeli-occupied territories for consultations. By 2024, after supporting South Africa’s ICJ case, Colombia broke off relations with Israel entirely.
Following this, Petro’s government announced the opening of a diplomatic mission in Ramallah, headed by Jorge Iván Ospina as ambassador to Palestine.
In 2025, Bogotá led efforts with 12 countries to suspend arms purchases from Israeli companies and review contracts tied to the illegal entity, and seek those responsible for war crimes perpetrated against the Palestinian people.
Treatment of Palestinians 'a disgrace'
Other leaders from the Global South added their voices. Iraq’s President Abdul Latif Rashid told the UN General Assembly that the treatment of Palestinians by Israel is “inhumane” and a “disgrace.”
He called it a proof of the world’s “selectiveness” when protecting human rights.
“The Palestinian civilians are beset by killing, starvation, displacement, and the destruction of infrastructure and state institutions. This is inhumane. It’s a disgrace for humanity. Therefore, this must end,” Rashid said, calling for urgent international measures and stressing that an independent Palestinian state was the only path to stability in West Asia and beyond.
King Don Felipe VI of Spain also delivered a remarkably bold and blunt speech, calling on the Israeli regime to “stop the massacre” and end their “abhorrent acts” against Palestinians.
Although he stopped short of using the word “genocide”– a term already employed by the country’s outspoken Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez – Felipe said Spain and others were at a loss to understand Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
“We can’t keep silent, nor look the other way, when confronted with so much devastation, with the bombing – even of hospitals, schools and places of refuge – or with so many deaths among the civilian population, or with the famine and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people – to what end?” he asked.
“These are abhorrent acts that are the very opposite of everything that this forum represents. They sicken the human conscience and shame the entire international community.”
Diplomatic relations between Spain and Israel have curdled amid the Gaza genocide, with Madrid introducing several measures, including an arms embargo, and Sánchez criticizing the regime for “exterminating a defenceless people” by bombing hospitals and “killing innocent boys and girls with hunger.”
He called for humanitarian aid to be let into Gaza, for a ceasefire, adding that the growing diplomatic recognition of the state of Palestine should help to secure a “just and definitive” regional peace.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian used his UN address to denounce Israeli genocidal war crimes as “clear violations of the Geneva Conventions” and evidence of global double standards.
His speech was among the most powerful and hard-hitting, exposing the genocidal crimes of the Israeli regime, complicity of the US and its allies and silence of the international community.
Delusional 'Greater Israel' project
He condemned repeated violations of the sovereignty of regional countries, carried out under the pretext of "self-defence," which target civilians and destabilize the region.
“Would you allow such acts for yourselves,” he asked the attendees, urging the world body to recognize where the true threats to peace and security originate.
The Iranian president denounced the “absurd and delusional” plan for so-called “Greater Israel,” criticizing Israel for pursuing aggression and apartheid under the guise of “peace through power.”
“Today, after nearly two years of genocide, mass starvation, the continuation of apartheid inside the occupied territories, and aggression against neighboring countries, the absurd and delusional plan of a ‘Greater Israel’ is being shamelessly declared at the highest levels of this regime.”
He said such policies amount to “bullying and coercion — not peace, and not power.”
Pezeshkian instead called for a “strong region” built on collective security, cultural diversity, shared investment, and the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“We stand against mega projects that impose genocide, destruction, and instability on the region, and we defend a shared and hopeful vision: a vision that guarantees collective security through genuine mechanisms of defensive cooperation and joint responses to threats… a vision that seeks not ‘peace through force’ but ‘power through peace.’”
Indescribable tragedy in Gaza
Senegalese President BassÃrou Diomaye Diakhar Faye also spoke of the “indescribable” tragedy unfolding in Gaza, where Palestinians face a “daily shower of bombs, with all lines crossed.”
“We cannot remain silent nor look away because Gaza is no longer alive,” he said, underscoring that nothing justifies the agony of men, women, and children deprived of food, water, and healthcare.
He reaffirmed that only the creation of an independent, viable Palestinian state can bring justice.
As these calls for accountability and recognition of Palestine grew louder at this year's UNGA summit, Netanyahu found himself increasingly isolated and cornered.
Officials and diplomats staged a walkout as he took to the podium, leaving large parts of the General Assembly hall empty. Outside, protesters filled Times Square, denouncing Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
In his address, Netanyahu signaled there would be no end to the genocidal war, dismissing UN findings of genocide and showing defiance in the face of mounting international condemnation.
Even at home, Netanyahu’s remarks were ridiculed. Opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote: “Today saw a weary and whining Israeli prime minister, in a speech overloaded with overused gimmicks. Instead of stopping the diplomatic tsunami – Netanyahu today worsened the state of … Israel.”
In a bizarre move, Netanyahu’s office ordered the Israeli military to mount loudspeakers on trucks along the Gaza perimeter fence to broadcast his speech live across the territory.
Yair Golan, leader of Israel’s Democrats party, blasted the stunt as “invalid, childish, and insane,” calling it a mere “propaganda show.”
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