On Thursday, a dramatic coordinated protest unfolded at the United Nations General Assembly’s 81st session, when dozens of international diplomatic delegations exited the assembly chamber immediately before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approached the podium to deliver his address. Staged at the invitation of the Palestinian mission to the UN, the high-profile demonstration left large swathes of the chamber’s seating empty as diplomats filed out in an organized walkout, broadcast live to global audiences.
The protest is the latest visible reflection of deep, ongoing international divisions over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has emerged as a central, contentious topic in this year’s round of General Assembly negotiations. While hundreds of diplomats joined the exit, many other representatives remained in their seats, and Netanyahu received applause and public expressions of support from delegations that stayed for the speech. Undeterred by the demonstration, the Israeli prime minister delivered his planned address as scheduled, using his time at the podium to defend his government’s military operations and push back against widespread international criticism of the campaign.
In the hours following the protest, incorrect international reporting initially listed Belize as one of the participating nations that had left the chamber. Türkiye’s Anadolu Agency was among the outlets that incorrectly included Belize in its count of walking out delegations. However, Oscar Arnold, CEO of Belize’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, quickly clarified the error in an official statement to The Reporter, confirming that no Belizean diplomats were present in the General Assembly chamber at the time of the protest, making participation impossible.
Arnold explained that the entire Belize delegation was split across three pre-scheduled bilateral diplomatic meetings that overlapped with the timing of Netanyahu’s address, leaving no representatives available to attend the speech. Notably, this correction does not shift Belize’s longstanding diplomatic stance on the conflict: the Central American nation has repeatedly voiced public support for Palestinian statehood and has consistently criticized Israel’s military actions in Gaza in multilateral forums.