DOMINANT ANGLE
Madrid is particularly mindful of its own stance in response to Netanyahou's speech: empty seats at the UN, a Pedro Sánchez already at Harvard, and an international arrest warrant that remains unenforced despite the appeal from the mayor of New York.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
The delegation did not occupy its seats at the General Assembly, reproducing the boycott already observed in 2024 and 2025.
- 02
Pedro Sánchez had left New York for Boston, where he delivered a speech at Harvard deemed particularly harsh on Gaza by the Spanish press, before Netanyahou's intervention.
- 03
New York police arrested several protesters, including actress Susan Sarandon, as Mayor Zohran Mamdani called for the execution of the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant against Netanyahou.
ANALYSIS
Madrid, September 25, 2026. The Spanish delegation did not even need to leave the room: it was not there. As in 2024 and 2025, the Spanish seats at the UN General Assembly remained empty on Thursday during Benjamin Netanyahu's speech, who launched at the delegations already leaving: "If there are other moral cowards who have not yet withdrawn from the room, let them do so now." Pedro Sánchez was not in New York either: the head of government had joined Boston, where he delivered a speech at Harvard that the Spanish press describes as particularly harsh on Gaza, just hours before the Israeli Prime Minister's intervention.
The Spanish gesture is part of a broader movement of delegations leaving when Netanyahu took the floor, leaving large areas empty during one of the most anticipated speeches of the high-level week. In the stands, supporters wearing kippas and Israeli flag pins chanted "Bibi, you are the light of this room" and applauded standing up.
Outside the UN headquarters, the mobilization turned into arrests: the New York police arrested several protesters who blocked First Avenue, including actress Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who had called for Netanyahu's arrest in the name of the warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the Gaza offensive, specified that he had studied the available legal avenues, while acknowledging that their execution depended on the federal authorities, controlled by the Trump administration.
The Spanish press also puts the speech into the context of the Israeli electoral calendar, set for October 27: the Central Electoral Committee voted to exclude parties with a Palestinian majority, Ra'am, the United List, and Balad, as well as two candidates, a decision that the Supreme Court must rule on before October 4. The documentary NAZA, on the use of artificial intelligence by the Israeli army in Gaza, made available online for free by its directors after Netanyahu's threat to revoke citizenship from those who "slander" the army, fuels the same internal debate.
SOURCES (3)
- HuffPost EspañaMEDIUM
- ElDiario.esMEDIUM
- ExpansiónMEDIUM
