Israeli leader addresses UN assembly
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 26 September 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Israel leader Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the UN General Assembly in Geneva just days after several leading countries announced the recognition of Palestinian statehood. We speak to the father of an Israeli soldier who was captured on 7 October 2023. The father was at the UN and turned his back on the Israeli prime minister.
Also, the former FBI director James Comey, who led the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 Trump campaign, has been indicted. We hear the latest, and after a breakthrough in the treatment of Huntingdon’s disease, we speak to Arlo Guthrie whose father Woody, the celebrated folk singer, died of the condition.
(Photo: Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the General Debate of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, United Nations headquarters in New York. Credit: Sarah Yenesel/EPA/Shutterstock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.2 | Hello and welcome to news and out from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.5 | We're coming to you live from London. |
| 0:14.3 | I'm James Menendez, and we're going to begin in New York, |
| 0:17.4 | because Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been addressing the UN General Assembly in the past hour. |
| 0:24.7 | His address comes just a few days after several leading countries, including Britain and France, |
| 0:29.4 | announced they were recognising Palestinian statehood, something that Mr Netanyahu has said will never happen. |
| 0:36.3 | And of course, it comes against the backdrop of a growing chorus of condemnation over Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza. |
| 0:43.7 | Well, Mr. Netanyahu finished speaking about 15 or 20 minutes ago. |
| 0:48.8 | But just before he began his speech, many of those gathered in the hall, walked out. |
| 0:58.0 | Please order in the hall. |
| 1:03.0 | Please order in the hall. |
| 1:06.1 | And there were many empty seats during what was about a 40 minutes speech, much longer than |
| 1:12.0 | the allotted 15 minutes. |
| 1:14.0 | Well, in it, Israel's prime minister said that the country's war against Hamas in Gaza would |
| 1:19.7 | continue. |
| 1:21.0 | Let's have a listen to some of what he had to say. |
| 1:24.9 | Ladies and gentlemen, thanks to special efforts by Israeli intelligence, my words are now also |
| 1:32.2 | being carried. |
| 1:33.2 | They're streamed live to the cell phones of Gaza's. |
| 1:37.5 | So to the remaining Hamas leaders and to the jailers of our hostages, I now say, lay down your arms, let my people go, free the hostages, all of them, the whole 48, free the hostages now. |
| 1:55.0 | If you do, you will live. |
... |
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