What To Know About UN Walkouts, And Why They Happen
- Ofek Kehila
- Oct 6
- 4 min read
The mass walkout of dozens of delegates from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly Hall this year was not a new form of protest. However, the timing of this protest in light of recent events, such as the last wave of recognition of a Palestinian state and the announcement of a comprehensive peace proposal to end the war in Gaza, raises several questions. Why did the walkout happen? Who else among global leaders has received the same treatment in the past, and what is the connection to recent events?
UN General Assembly walkouts: A timeline
Walkouts en masse have become a popular form of protest among United Nations delegates, occurring more than once in the past, most notably during speeches by leaders from Iran, Russia, and, recently, Israel.
Arguably, former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad holds the dubious record of UN Assembly walkouts. For several years in a row, his addresses at the United Nations gathering sparked mass walkouts by dozens of delegates. One of the most notable of these instances was the 2010 UN General Assembly address, where delegates from the US, the EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Costa Rica walked out in protest against Ahmadinejad’s claims that the US government was behind the September 11 attacks.
Another contender for the title is Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
His 2022 speech at the United Nations Human Rights Council triggered a walkout of around 100 diplomats in protest over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The walkout left the conference hall largely empty, both of many of the diplomats and of Lavrov himself, who delivered his speech by video.
In 2024, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became a member of the infamous “walkout club” when many diplomats abandoned his speech at the UN General Assembly in protest against the war in Gaza and the attacks in Lebanon.
2025 UN General Assembly walkout on Netanyahu
On September 26, the UN saw what was perhaps one of the major walkouts in its history, as delegates from 77 countries abandoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech or never attended it in the first place.
These are the 77 countries whose delegates either walked out or did not attend Netanyau’s speech: Suriname, Tuvalu, Turkmenistan, Yemen, Egypt, Panama, Senegal, Palestine, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey, Venezuela, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Congo, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tonga, Uzbekistan, Angola, Barbados, Colombia, Comoros, Dominica, Djibouti, North Macedonia, San Marino, South Africa, Somalia, Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Brazil, Chile, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lebanon, Liberia, Eritrea, Chad, Central African Republic, Libya, Mauritania, Jordan, Nicaragua, Madagascar, Niger, Peru, Saint Lucia, Slovenia, Afghanistan, Bahamas, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, North Korea, Eswatini, Syria, Uganda, Pakistan, Lesotho, Bolivia, Spain, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Iraq, Mozambique, Myanmar, Ireland, Maldives, Indonesia, Kuwait, Namibia, Malaysia, Guyana, and Kenya.
This dramatic protest happened as part of the diplomatic fallout from the Gaza war. It marks Israel’s increasing isolation on the world stage and in other spheres, such as sports events.
Mass UN walkout in light of Palestinian recognition
To understand the 2025 UN walkout, it is necessary to consider two key events: the UN’s recognition of a Palestinian state and President Trump’s Gaza peace plan. However, each of these events throws a different light on the walkout.
On the one hand, the walkout perfectly aligns with the UN recognition of a Palestinian state. As of 2025, the State of Palestine is recognized by 157 out of the 193 member states of the United Nations, more than 80% of all UN members. In the last wave of new recognitions, Palestine was recognized by 4 important countries: Australia, Britain, Canada, and France.
On the other hand, the massive walkout stands in stark contrast to the announcement of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan. It is important to stress that almost all the countries whose delegates walked out in protest of Netanyahu’s speech are now also supporting the Gaza peace plan, most notably of which are leading Arab and Islamic countries, such as Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Turkey.
Wrap up
Overnight, the Gaza peace plan has won wide support: Israel is on board and so is the US, the Arab and Muslim countries, the EU members, and many other countries across the globe. The only one who has not yet supported the plan and might reject it is Hamas. Will the next days see a strategic turnaround, as the once-isolated Israel is now at the center of an international consensus for peace? It all depends on the outcomes of Trump’s plan and the answer from Hamas.
Ofek Kehila (Israel, 1987) is a scholar of Spanish Golden Age literature and Latin American literature of the 20th and 21st centuries. His research bridges the gap between those traditions, highlighting their aesthetic, cultural, and historical dialogue. He holds a PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2022) and was a postdoctoral fellow at Freie Universität Berlin (2023-2025).