Bereaved father Itzik Bontzel, father of Staff Sergeant Amit Bontzel, who fell in combat in the Gaza Strip, sang “Am Yisrael Chai" (“The People of Israel Live") on Thursday evening in the United Nations General Assembly hall in New York as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered to deliver his address.
Bontzel later published footage of the moment and wrote: “When Netanyahu entered the hall at the UN, I stood up and shouted loudly for all the nations of the world to hear: ‘Am Yisrael Chai.’"
The singing could be heard as Netanyahu entered the hall, while dozens of representatives of various countries left the chamber as his speech began.
Netanyahu addressed the representatives who walked out, saying from the podium: “If there are any more moral cowards who haven’t yet left the hall, please do so now!"
Later in his speech, the Prime Minister addressed the war of the past three years, the October 7 massacre, the campaign against Iran, and Hezbollah.
In one of the notable moments of his speech, Netanyahu pulled out a pager and held it up from the UN podium.
“Remember the pagers?" he asked, adding that Hezbollah “certainly remembers."