Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel occupies "a tiny sliver of land…" compared with the Arab world

At the UN General Assembly in New York, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected allegations that Israel is a colonial enterprise, telling critics including those in Britain and France that those countries had built global empires and coined the concept. To illustrate his point, he said Israel occupies a very small area compared with the Arab world. Many delegates walked out before his speech in protest; he criticized them. The address came amid his difficult re-election campaign, international criticism of West Bank settlement expansion, and a recent UK trade ban on that territory that caused a diplomatic dispute. Netanyahu also dismissed claims of genocide in Gaza as false and blamed settler violence on a small number of youths. Jews should not be intimidated, he said.