Debunked: Biggest lies and distortions in Netanyahu's US Congress speech

By Humaira Ahad

Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a divisive speech to the US Congress that was boycotted by many US lawmakers and saw numerous protests across the country.

As the death toll from the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza approaches 40,000 and the humanitarian situation continues to worsen, Netanyahu vowed to continue the war and urged for more US support—more lethal weapons—to "finish the job faster."

During his speech, rife with blatant lies, false claims, and distortions, the 'crime minister' of the Israeli regime attacked the International Criminal Court (ICC) for issuing an arrest warrant against him over "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity."

Netanyahu has been called out for peddling outrageously naked lies in his speech, which ironically was applauded by Americans, further confirming the deep collusion between the two sides in the Gaza genocide.

Here we unpack some of the lies that Netanyahu spewed in his US Congress speech.

"Hamas burnt babies on October 7"

No photograph or video of an Israeli child decapitated on October 7, following Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, has been made public by the Israeli regime or its military, pointing to the falsity of the claim.

On October 11, the Israeli army said it would not provide any forensic evidence to substantiate this charge of infanticide leveled against the Palestinian resistance.

"I don’t have evidence and I’m not looking for one," Israeli army spokesperson Major Nir Dinar was quoted as saying at the time.

US President Joe Biden, who went out of his way to amplify the Zionist claims, also falsely claimed to have seen photos of "terrorists beheading children."

Later, the White House walked back on the claim, admitting that neither the president nor any other US official had seen such pictures and that the administration had no independent confirmation of the claims made by Netanyahu or his ministers.

An investigative report by the Electronic Intifada website revealed that the babies were killed in the Gaza-frontier settlement of Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 by Israeli forces in line with the so-called “Hannibal Directive”—Israeli regime's homicide-suicide pact.

"Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis on October 7"

A report published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed that the Netanyahu regime carried out the Hannibal order, which directs the Israeli military forces to kill its own people (settlers) to prevent their capture.

According to the report, the directive was enacted at three army facilities attacked by the Hamas resistance group on October 7.

The Hannibal Directive authorizes the use of force to any extent to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers and settlers, even at the risk of killing them.

The newspaper reported that communication recorded on the morning of October 7 confirms that Israel was ready to kill its own settlers to avoid them being taken hostage.

The directive given at 11:22 am local time stated that "Not a single vehicle can return to Gaza," effectively making Israeli settlers collateral damage.

The regime employed the Hannibal Directive at multiple locations, including the Re’im army base and the Nahal Oz outpost.

At Re’im, drone attacks were ordered even as Israel’s Shaldag commando forces were engaged in combat with Hamas resistance fighters, raising the possibility of a high number of casualties among Israeli forces.

An investigation by Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth in December revealed that the Israeli military, acting on the orders of the regime, used overwhelmingly lethal force against their own people captured on October 7, in order to avoid them being held captive.

"Anti-Israel protests call for the genocide of Jews"

Most of the protests against the Israeli genocide in Gaza in recent months have been spearheaded by Jews in different countries, including the protest at the US Capitol on the eve of Netanyahu’s visit to Washington last week.

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and IfNotNow are just two of the largest anti-Zionism organizations that have voiced their unflinching support for ongoing pro-Palestine and anti-Israel demonstrations in the US.

"We applaud the courage and determination of students all over the country who are peacefully protesting for an end to US support to the Israeli military and calling on their own universities to divest from the Israeli military," JVP's executive director Stefanie Fox said in a statement recently.

"It is not anti-Semitic to protest the actions of the Israeli regime which is waging a genocidal campaign on Gaza," Fox added.

A day before Netanyahu’s speech to US Congress, thousands of Jews marched on Capitol Hill carrying Palestinian flags and rallying in support of Palestinian rights.

They wore shirts that read, "Not in our name," and unfurled banners demanding a "ceasefire," following which more than 200 of them were arrested and beaten up.

"ICC prosecutor accuses Israel of deliberately targeting civilians. What in God’s green Earth is he talking about?"

A report published in June by the United Nations-backed independent commission revealed that the Israeli military’s “deliberate” use of heavy and lethal weapons in the Gaza Strip has been an “intentional and a direct attack on the civilian population.”

Navi Pillay, chairperson of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said that the Israeli regime has committed crimes against humanity, forced starvation, extermination, murder, and inhumane and cruel treatment of Palestinians in the besieged territory.

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a Geneva-based human rights group, stated in a recent report that the Israeli regime "is employing small drones, known as quadcopters, to directly target and attack Palestinians with the intention of killing and injuring civilians.”

Investigations conducted by Euro-Med indicate that Israel primarily targets unarmed civilians in shelter centers, hospitals, streets, and densely populated residential areas in the narrow strip of 2.3 million people.

It reported that Israeli quadcopter drones opened fire on Palestinians gathered to receive flour brought by United Nations trucks on January 11, resulting in the deaths of at least 50 people.

There have been numerous other reports by independent human rights groups since October last year highlighting gross human rights abuses against Palestinians, most of them children and women, in the Gaza Strip.

Children, including toddlers, have been killed with bombs, bullets, and the weapon of starvation, with more than 16,000 children already dead as per conservative estimates. The unofficial toll is much higher.

"ICJ has accused Israel of deliberately starving people of Gaza. It is complete nonsense."

A Euro-Med report titled “Killing starving Palestinians and targeting aid trucks: A deliberate Israeli policy to reinforce famine in the Gaza Strip” published in April revealed that the regime killed 563 Palestinians and injured 1,523 more by targeting people waiting for aid, distribution centers, and workers responsible for organizing, protecting, and distributing aid.

According to the same report, between January 11 and March 23, 2024, 256 people were killed in the Kuwait roundabout area in southeast Gaza City, 230 on Al-Rashid Street in southwest Gaza City, and 21 at aid distribution centers.

Documentation also shows that 41 police officers and People’s Protection Committee members overseeing aid distribution were killed, along with 12 aid distribution workers.

Nearly 200 workers of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees have been killed since October last year, according to UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini, who on Saturday termed it the "largest loss of personnel in a single conflict."

Most of them, Palestinian civilians, were killed while distributing aid in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu also repeated the claim that Hamas has been stealing the aid. This claim has among others been debunked by US diplomat David Satterfield as well.

Satterfield said no Israeli official has presented him or the Biden administration with “specific evidence of diversion or theft of assistance.”

A panel of 10 independent UN rapporteurs stated on June 9 that there is "no doubt" famine now exists across all of Gaza due to the war that is now in its tenth month.

"We declare that Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza," they stated.

In April, the UN humanitarian coordination office, OCHA, reported that since March 1, 30% of humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza have been denied by Israeli regime authorities.

In addition to denying aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the regime has bombed flour mills, bakeries, grocery shops, and markets on a regular basis with sheer impunity.

It has destroyed agricultural lands, targeted boats and fishing equipment, and water tanks, depriving the people of Gaza of their limited ability to produce food locally.

A series of Israeli airstrikes on a World Central Kitchen aid convoy on April 1 killed seven workers, leading major aid groups to pause their operations.

In June, the World Food Program paused its operations after two of its warehouses were attacked during the regime's devastating military onslaught to free some captives, which resulted in the killing of 300 Palestinians.

In February, at least 112 Palestinians were killed and more than 750 injured after Israeli forces opened fire on hundreds waiting for food aid southwest of Gaza City.

"Civilian casualties stemming from Israeli operations in Rafah are practically none"

On May 27, regime forces attacked tents housing displaced people in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, killing at least 40 Palestinians, including many children.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported that the dead included women and children, many of whom were "burned alive" inside their tents following the onslaught.

Two days later, on May 28, another Israeli strike hit a refugee camp, killing dozens of displaced Palestinians, including children.

Days later, Israeli attacks on the city of Rafah, which was declared a 'safe zone,' killed 18 people overnight, including nine children.

Earlier in February, roughly four Israeli airstrikes killed at least 95 civilians, with about half of the victims being children.

Just like other hospitals in the territory, the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah has been rendered non-operational due to deliberate attacks by Israeli forces on the hospital’s staff and surrounding area.

"Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel, never to be divided again"

The United Nations partition plan drawn up in 1947 envisaged Jerusalem Al-Quds as a separate "international city."

In 1948, the Israeli regime's war and illegal capture of Palestinian territories divided it.

In 1980, the regime passed the so-called "Jerusalem Law," stating that "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel."

In response, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 478 in 1980, declaring the so-called law “null and void.”

The world body stated that the illegal Israeli annexation of occupied East Jerusalem violates several principles under international law, which stipulate that an occupying power does not have sovereignty over the territory it occupies.

The international community officially regards East Jerusalem as occupied territory. In 2017, the UN General Assembly rebuked then-US President Donald Trump for shifting the US embassy to occupied Jerusalem Al-Quds, with a majority voting to reject Trump's controversial move.

Moreover, no country in the world recognizes occupied Jerusalem Al-Quds as Israel’s capital, with the exception of the US.

"Vast majority of Americans have not fallen for Hamas propaganda; they continue to support Israel."

A YouGov poll conducted in late October last year found that more Americans aged 18-29 sympathize with Palestinians than with the Israeli regime in the current war.

Another October poll conducted by Data For Progress found that 66 percent of American voters "strongly agree" or "somewhat agree" that "the US should call for a ceasefire and a de-escalation of violence in Gaza. The US should leverage its close diplomatic relationship with Israel to prevent further violence and civilian deaths."

A November 30 Gallup poll found that 45 percent of Americans disapproved of Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza.

By March, US adult approval of Israel’s war on Gaza fell to 36 percent, with 55 percent disapproving.

The poll showed that the US public strongly disapproved of the US handling of the unfolding crisis in Gaza, which was apparent by massive countrywide protests against the Biden administration.

Netanyahu’s own image has also seen a sharp decline in the US. According to Gallup polls, until December 2023, he was viewed more positively than negatively by Americans.

Following the Gaza war, he turned into a villain, which was demonstrated by massive street protests in different US cities that coincided with his visit to Washington.

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