Christian Palestinians Hit Back at Netanyahu’s Lies at UNGA80

This is the third consecutive year I’ve dedicated a post to Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the 80th United Nations General Assembly aka UNGA80 aka UNGA2025

This year’s address was one to remember—not for its content, but for its audience. Netanyahu found himself speaking to rows of empty chairs, as most UN member state delegations walked out in protest rather than listen to a leader wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

Bibi addressing the world or rather mostly empty seats

Over a hundred diplomats from more than 70 countries, including Egypt, staged the mass walkout, crowding the aisles to exit the hall as the Israeli prime minister entered. Unfortunately, representatives from the UAE and Bahrain chose to remain.

Just as he did in 2023 and 2024, “Bibi” returned with his trademark Middle East map. This time, he singled out the familiar “bad actors”—Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran—while delivering yet another long list of falsehoods.

There is a curse for real carrying a map in this photo

The difference this year was striking; Netanyahu addressed the General Assembly not only with an arrest warrant hanging over him, but also to an audience largely reduced to empty seats.

Now, as usual and as expected, Bibi shared a whole string of lies about Palestine and the Palestinians. This post was going to be dedicated to his general lies.

Yet it is better to leave it to the Palestinians themselves to refute Netanyahu’s lies—especially the Christian Palestinians he cynically invoked in an attempt to win the support of the Christian world.

I am sharing this because, as usual, the mainstream media has chosen not to.

The Higher Presidential Committee of Churches Affairs in Palestine issued a statement in English and Arabic, directly rebutting the Israeli Prime Minister’s claims.

The statement reaffirmed that it is Israel’s colonial policies of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide that have devastated the Christian presence in Palestine.

The committee noted that before the 1948 Nakba, Palestinian Christians made up 12.5% of the population of historic Palestine.

Today, that number has fallen to just 1.2% in historic Palestine, and only 1% in the territories occupied since 1967. This decline is the direct result of Israel’s policies of forcible displacement, land confiscation, and systematic oppression.

During the Nakba, 90,000 Palestinian Christians were expelled, and nearly 30 churches were forced to close.

Zionist militias, including the Haganah, carried out attacks such as the 1948 bombing of Jerusalem’s Semiramis Hotel, which killed 25 Palestinian Christians.

That same year, Israeli forces executed 12 Christians in the village of Eilabun near Nazareth.

The Christian villages of Iqrit and Kafr Bir’im in Upper Galilee were home to thriving communities of nearly 570 residents in Iqrit and 1,050 in Kafr Bir’im. In 1948, Israeli forces occupied both villages, ordering families to leave “temporarily” under the pretext of military operations.

Kafr Bir'Im and Iqrit villages political poster 
“For 24 years, we have nursed our children on the love of
the land with our own milk.
We may live in cattle pens, but what matters
 most is that we are on our land.”

Despite a 1951 Israeli Supreme Court ruling affirming their right to return, the government defied the decision. By 1953, Israeli forces had demolished every home to prevent their return. Only the churches and cemeteries remain silent witnesses to this crime of forced displacement.

Even during Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, churches and religious institutions were not spared. Israeli airstrikes struck the St. Porphyrios Greek Orthodox Church and the Holy Family Catholic Church, killing civilians who had sought shelter inside. The Baptist Hospital and the Arab Orthodox Cultural and Social Center were also bombed.

A view of the damaged historical Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church, where civilians took shelter, after Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Gaza on October 20, 2023. Getty images

Christian homes were destroyed, forcing families to seek refuge in churches—which themselves came under attack.

Since October 2023, 44 Palestinian Christians have been killed, either directly by Israeli bombings or indirectly due to a lack of medicine, food, and the collapse of Gaza’s humanitarian system.

In the West Bank, the Christian village of Taybeh has been repeatedly terrorized by violent settler rampages.

Across Palestine, churches face a deliberate and coordinated assault aimed at eroding their presence and role in society. Israeli authorities have frozen the bank accounts of the Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem, imposed punitive taxes on church properties in violation of the Status Quo, and even issued foreclosure orders to seize property belonging to the Armenian Church in Jerusalem.

These measures are not isolated incidents but part of a systematic policy to weaken and ultimately erase the Christian presence in the Holy Land.

In addition to these crimes, Palestinian Christians endure near-daily harassment: clergy are spat on, assaulted, and intimidated; churches and cemeteries are vandalized; and Christian symbols are desecrated. Movement is tightly restricted by Israel’s apartheid wall and military permit regime. "Please check this article from July 2023"

Christian Palestinian graves that were vandalized by Jewish settlers,
in the Christian cemetery on Mount Zion, in the Old City of Jerusalem, January 4, 2023.
"Gamal Awad"

Even access to holy sites—particularly during Easter in Jerusalem—is denied. International pilgrims, too, face humiliation and abuse. 

Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, is today strangled by illegal settlements, military checkpoints, and the apartheid wall.

Lands belonging to Christian families have been confiscated for settlement expansion. Once covering 37 square kilometers, Bethlehem has been reduced to just 7.3 square kilometers. Encircled by more than 150 checkpoints, gates, and barriers, it has become a city under siege. Israel’s E1 colonial plan further deepens Jerusalem’s isolation from its Palestinian surroundings and threatens to sever Bethlehem’s historic ties to the Holy City.

The Committee reminds the world that defending the Christian presence in Palestine is not only a Palestinian cause—it is a global moral, humanitarian, and legal obligation.

It calls upon the international community to hold Israel accountable for its systematic violations of international law and human rights and urges churches worldwide to speak with courage and clarity in defense of their sisters and brothers in the land of Christ.

The Committee also appealed to the United Nations to ensure the protection of freedom of worship and the preservation of the Christian presence in Palestine, as part of its mandate to safeguard fundamental human rights.

Other facts Bibi lied about

Aside from the lies Bibi repeated about the Palestinian Christians, there are lots of lies that have been put under the spotlight.

Most importantly, “If Hamas agrees to Israel’s demands, the war could end right now”.

I lost count of the multiple ceasefire or peace‐deal proposals that Hamas has either accepted in principle or shown openness to, but many of them have failed because of last-minuted rejections or added conditions—often by Israel under Netanyahu—making it difficult for any deal to fully take hold.

In fact, Hamas offered to release the hostages to stop the full invasion in October 2023, but Netanyahu rejected the offer

He also claimed that Israel is taking great pains to minimise civilian casualties in Gaza. I think Hind Ragab begs to differ from the other world!!

According to a joint investigation by The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Local Call in August, five out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza have been civilians. The classified Israeli army data indicates that the civilian death rate of 83% in Gaza!!

Bibi also repeated that lie about how Israel was not blocking aid from entering Gaza; it is Hamas that is stealing the aid from Palestinians.

The UN says that Israel has been blocking the aid for months. Also, an internal U.S. government analysis found no evidence of systematic theft by Hamas of U.S.-funded humanitarian supplies, challenging the main rationale that Israel and the U.S. give for backing a new armed private aid operation.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the lies of Israeli officials, especially those of Benjamin Netanyahu — the corrupt man who thought he could redraw the Middle East. Hopefully, inshallah, he won’t be present at the 81st UN General Assembly in 2026.