What did the UNGA assembly walk out when PM of Israel started speaking?
Representatives from 77 countries walked out of the General Assembly hall as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the podium at the 81st UN General Assembly on Day 3 of the high-level week.
Here's the answer from Mary's digital twin. The gray check mark turns green once Mary has confirmed it.
The mass departure of 77 delegations from the United Nations General Assembly hall ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu's speech sparked widespread reaction on social media. Footage from the hall showed many delegations leaving before Netanyahu began speaking, while several others walked out shortly before he took the podium, leaving a limited audience behind.
Who left and who stayed
Among the 18 Arab countries whose delegations walked out were Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Somalia and Comoros. Delegations from 14 countries grouped under Asia and Turkey also left the hall, including Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, the Maldives, Myanmar, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
What Netanyahu said about it
Addressing the walkouts directly, Netanyahu called the departing delegates "moral cowards," and said Israel was defending many of the countries whose representatives had left the hall.
The speech itself
Netanyahu began by lambasting Iran and dramatically claiming that if he hadn't attacked Iran, "We'd all be dead." He also addressed Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and said Jews have been in the Golan Heights since the time of Moses. Throughout, he insisted on telling "the truth" about Israel's military operations and its soldiers, while strongly rejecting war crimes allegations.
The Guardian reported that Netanyahu vowed to "finish the job" in Gaza as delegates left the hall in protest, while The Washington Post presented the walkout as part of the growing global backlash against Israeli policies. Haaretz described the speech as repetitive and aimed primarily at Netanyahu's right-wing political base and US President Donald Trump, amid what the newspaper described as the Israeli prime minister's growing international isolation.
The backdrop
Earlier, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the UNGA via video after again being denied an entry visa by the Trump administration. He called on global leaders to hold Israel accountable and for the implementation of the stalled 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan, and urged the international community to push for the two-state solution in the face of ongoing Israeli expansion of settlements.
Watch the speech on YouTubeFollow-ups
Where can I see video of the UNGA walking out? Who is telling the truth? How do we know who is right?
Video of the walkout during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the 81st UN General Assembly is on YouTube right now, and the truth about what actually happened sits between two competing framings, both of which are partly right.
Where to watch
Benjamin Netanyahu UNGA Speech 2026 — Walkouts During Israel PM Address (YouTube)
That stream shows the full speech and the departures in real time. CNN also covered the walkout live, reporting that groups of diplomats walked out of the UN General Assembly as Netanyahu began his speech. The UN's own stream is at UN Web TV, where the session is archived.
Who is telling the truth
Both sides are telling a version of the truth, and both are leaving something out.
Israel published its own count of which seats were empty: 77 delegations were either absent from the hall or left at the start of Netanyahu's remarks. That number is real. But Israeli officials themselves noted that not all absences were boycotts. In some cases, representatives simply did not attend the morning session, where Netanyahu was the first scheduled speaker.
Jordan and Egypt, for instance, did not take their seats but did not join the staged protest. Pakistan's delegation walked out in protest but then stood at the sidelines to listen to the speech. So the figure of 77 bundles together deliberate political statements and ordinary scheduling gaps.
The Palestinian Mission to the UN had sent a message to many of the 193 member nations asking them to bring as many staff as possible to the hall and collectively walk out once Netanyahu was announced. That is an organized diplomatic action, not a spontaneous one, and knowing it was coordinated matters when you assess what it means.
By contrast, envoys from Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, both signatories to the 2020 Abraham Accords, remained in their seats despite ongoing strains over the war in Gaza.
How to know what is right
Three things help you cut through it.
First, watch the UN's own archived feed. The camera does not editorialize. You can see which seats were empty and when people left.
Second, read the count with the asterisk. According to Israeli reports, 77 countries were absent during Netanyahu's speech, but several delegations walked out shortly before he took the podium while representatives of other countries had not been in their seats from the outset. "Absent" and "walked out in protest" are not the same thing, and the 77 figure conflates both.
The walkout was real and large. Its precise meaning, protest versus scheduling, isolation versus coordination, depends on which seats you are counting and why.
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