UN General Assembly 2025: Palestine and Gaza dominate day one
UN General Assembly 2025: Palestine and Gaza dominate day one
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres kicked off the 80th United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday at the UN headquarters in New York City with an appeal to strengthen multilateralism and position the UN as a "moral compass" that can alleviate the myriad crises facing the world.
Guterres called on member states to "reaffirm" the deteriorated rule of international law.
"Our ability to carry out that work is being cut from us. We've entered an age of reckless disruption and relentless human suffering. Look around. The principles of the UN that you have established are under siege."
Before addressing the situation in Gaza, Guterres warned that "sovereign nations are being invaded, hunger weaponised and truth silenced".
On Gaza, Guterres said the "horrors" are a result of decisions that "defy basic humanity".
"The scale of death and destruction are beyond any other conflict in my years as secretary-general."
Guterres raised the International Court of Justice's case regarding Israel's genocide in Gaza and the legally binding measures the court has issued, saying that they must be "fully and immediately" implemented, to a round of applause from the room.
"Nothing can justify the horrific Hamas attacks of October 7th. And nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people and the systematic destruction of Gaza. We know what is needed. Permanent ceasefire, now. All the hostages released, now. Full humanitarian access, now."
Guterres then reaffirmed that a two-state solution in Palestine was the only viable answer to sustainable peace in the Middle East and warned of rising Israeli settler expansion and the "looming threat of annexation", alluding to Israel's threats to annex the occupied West Bank.
Brazil: Palestinian people at risk of disappearing
In keeping with a decades-long tradition, Brazil was the first country to address world leaders at the General Assembly.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva put Palestine at the heart of his argument that multilateralism and the UN's founding principle's "are under threat as never before".
"We are witnessing the consolidation of an international order marked by repeated concessions to power play," he said. "Attacks on sovereignty, arbitrary sanctions and unilateral interventions are becoming the rule."
In Gaza, he said, "we can see that international humanitarian law and the myth of ethical exceptionalism of the West are being buried".
"Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies the ongoing genocide in Gaza," Lula said, adding that "this massacre would not have happened without the complicity of those who could have prevented it", in a swipe at US support for Israel's war.
Lula criticised US President Donald Trump's administration's decision to ban Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from attending the General Assembly, and heralded a summit on Monday co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia on Palestinian statehood.
"The Palestinian people are at risk of disappearing," he said. "They will only survive with an independent state integrated into the international community."
Lula also warned about Israel's military forays outside of Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
"The spread of this conflict to Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Qatar is fueling an unprecedented arms buildup," he said.
Indonesia pledges 20,000 peacekeepers for Gaza
Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto hailed the Southeast Asian country's record of contributing to UN peacekeeping missions. He said he was ready to deploy up to 20,000 peacekeepers to Gaza.
"If and when the UN Security Council decides, Indonesia is prepared to deploy 20,000 or even more of our sons and daughters to help secure peace in Gaza, or elsewhere, in Ukraine, in Sudan, in Libya."
Like Guterres and Lula, he warned about the collapse of multilateralism, saying "without the UN we cannot be safe… the world needs a strong UN".
He said that "a catastrophic situation in Gaza is unfolding before our eyes" and "the innocent are crying to be saved", asking: "Who will save the innocent?"
Subianto also called for a two-state solution: "We must have an independent Palestine, but we must also guarantee the safety and security of Israel."
Turkey's Erdogan says Gaza 'lowest point in humanity'
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Israel's genocide in Gaza "cast a shadow" over the General Assembly.
He told world leaders: "Right before our eyes, genocide has been going on for over 700 days… even as we speak now, Israel is massacring civilians in Gaza."
Erdogan held up images from Gaza throughout his speech. Sharing a photograph of starving women and children begging for food, he said: "Feel your conscience and answer the following question: can we possibly have a reasonable reason for this brutality in 2025?"
"With a heavy heart, with my heart bleeding here, I'm telling you, innocent little ones, just two or three years old without hands arms or legs have unfortunately become a common sight to see in Gaza," he added.
At least one photograph showed the emaciated legs of a young child.
"Israel has cruelly killed one child every hour in Gaza for the past 23 months."
"This is not a fight against terrorism. This is an occupation carried out by utilising the October 7 incident. It is the deportation, exile, genocide, or more accurately, a policy of mass slaughter," he said, sharing an image of forcibly displaced Palestinians walking through an obliterated urban landscape.
"This represents the lowest point of humanity. Human history has not witnessed such bloodshed in the last century," he added.
Erdogan thanked countries who recognised a Palestinian state on Monday and urged more to follow. He said that the West Bank "is being occupied step by step and innocent civilians are being massacred" there by Israel.
Turning to the wider region, he echoed concerns voiced by other leaders about Israel's belligerence in Lebanon, Syria and Iran. He said that Israel's strike on Hamas political officials in Qatar earlier this month revealed that Israel's leadership "is now completely out of control".
"Due to the increasing aggression of Israel… the values that emerged after the Second World War have been eroded," he said.
Erdogan also alluded to cases against Israel by international courts. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in November.
The International Court of Justice is also hearing a case against Israel on the accusation of genocide.
"The genocide team should be held accountable vis-a-vis international law," Erdogan said, referring to Israeli officials. "Everyone who is keeping silent is an accomplice to this barbarity."
Erdogan also called for stability in the Eastern Mediterranean, where Turkey's maritime claims conflict with Greece.
He praised the overthrow of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government late last year. "We will support with all our means the vision of a unified Syria," he said.
He also congratulated Armenia and Azerbaijan for striking a historic peace deal brokered by Trump.
Jordan's King Abullah II warns of Israel's unchecked power
Jordan's King Abdullah II contrasted the 80th anniversary of the UN General Assembly with the failure to reach a solution in Israel and Palestine.
"The world vowed never again, however for almost as long, Palestinians have been living through a cruel cycle of 'yet again'; bombed indiscriminately yet again, killed, injured and maimed yet again, displaced and dispossessed yet again," he said.
"The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been on the UN agenda throughout its eight decades of its existence," he said, adding later that "the war in Gaza marks one of the darkest moments in this institution's history".
"A failure that should have elicited outrage and action, especially from major democracies, instead has been met with decades of inertia," he said.
King Abdullah II, who heads the Hashemite Monarchy, is also the guardian of Muslim and Christian Holy sites in Jerusalem, according to an agreement sealed when the city was part of Mandatory Palestine under British control. He raised an alarm about Israeli attacks in Jerusalem which he called a "tinderbox" that could ignite global conflict.
"Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem have been vandalised and desecrated by those under [Israeli] government protection," he said.
Specifically, he warned that the Israeli government's "hostile rhetoric calling for the targeting of Al-Aqsa Mosque will incite a religious war that will reach far beyond the region and lead to an all out clash that no nation will be able to escape".
Jordan has been alarmed by the Israeli government's efforts to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt, fearing it could set a precedent for a similar push to ethnically cleanse the occupied West Bank, which it borders.
"The current Israeli government's proactive calls for a so-called 'Greater Israel' can only be realised through the blatant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbors," Abdullah said.
"If a similar outrageous call were made by an Arab leader, would it be met with the same global attitude?"
Israel has also grabbed swathes of territory in southern Lebanon and southwestern Syria. In the latter, it is pushing for a demilitarised and no-fly-zone up to the Syrian capital of Damascus.
Abdullah also threw his support behind efforts to recognise a Palestinian state, but said such moves should not be conditional.
"How long before we recognise that statehood is not something Palestinians need to earn? It is not a reward, it is an indisputable right."
He continued to push for a two-state solution with East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.
"Security will only come when Palestine and Israel begin to coexist side by side. This is the two-state solution," he said.
Qatar warns of 'jungle rule' after Israeli attack on Doha
Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani warned that the UN's founding principles were under threat and that the "rule of the jungle" was asserting itself, particularly amid unchecked Israeli aggression in the Middle East.
"Doha on the 9th of September suffered a treacherous attack," Thani said, referring to Israel's attack on Hamas political officials in the Qatari capital who were weighing a US proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza at the time.
The attack killed six, including a Qatari national.
Thani called the attack a clear "violation of our sovereignty" and an act of "state terror" designed to "undermine efforts to end the genocide underway in Gaza".
"They [Israelis] visit our country and plot to attack it. They negotiate with delegations and plot to assassinate the members of the negotiating teams," he said. "Is this not the definition of a rogue government? They consider negotiations a continuation of war by other means," he said.
Thani said the attack showed Israel is not serious about ending the war in Gaza or releasing the remaining Israeli captives there.
"Their goal is to destroy Gaza [sic] where it is unlivable… the Israeli leader wants to continue war, he believes in what is called 'Greater Israel'. He believes that war is an opportunity to expand settlements and to change the status quo in the holy sites."
"Israel is not a democratic country surrounded by enemies, but in fact it is an enemy to its surrounding neighbors and it's engaged in a genocide… its leader is proud of preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state… he takes pride in preventing peace with the Palestinians," Thani added.
Like other Middle Eastern leaders, Thani said Israel was set on territorial expansion as it continues its atrocities in Gaza.
"[Israel] desires to impose its will on its surrounding neighbours and everyone who opposes its will is either antisemitic or a terrorist. Even Israel's allies realise this fact and reject it."
This is a developing story and will be updated throughout the day...
