Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hailed by supporters at home and abroad for delivering another eloquent and powerful defense of the Jewish state before the UN General Assembly last Friday.

And it seems to have caught the attention of a great many people in Iran and the Gaza Strip.

During the speech, Netanyahu wore a large lapel pin displaying a QR code. He encouraged viewers to zoom in and scan the code, which then took them to a website listing graphic video clips of the atrocities committed by Hamas and other Gazans on Oct. 7, 2023. Many of the clips were filmed by terrorists from Gaza to share on social media.

The QR code was scanned more than one million times in the 24 hours following Netanyahu’s speech, with over 30% of them coming from Iran and Gaza, according to the prime minister’s spokesman.

The QR code on Netanyahu’s lapel pin leads to this website showing the atrocities committed on Oct 7:https://t.co/CGt24wIo9a pic.twitter.com/06BHcqMsQf

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) September 26, 2025

The Prime Minister’s Office also released a version of Netanyahu’s speech with Arabic overdubbing. The aim was to inform the Middle East public why Israel continues to fight in Gaza, and to counter the false narrative of an indiscriminate “genocide.”

That Gazans were aware of and looked further into Netanyahu’s speech is of little surprise. Israel confirms that the IDF took control of and broadcast the prime minister’s speech in real time via personal mobile phones in Gaza. The Israeli army also set up loudspeakers so Netanyahu’s words could be heard across the coastal enclave.

In addition to forcing the residents of Gaza to hear the speech, Israeli officials hoped the remaining living hostages would also hear and take courage.

A cheap stunt

As Netanyahu took the podium at the UN General Assembly, a large number of foreign delegates staged a mass walk-out.

These people all walked out of the UN general assembly because they didn’t want to hear Netanyahu speak. Their job isn’t to be protesters. They’re diplomats and their job is to deal with governments they don’t like, but they’re more interested in virtue signaling for TikTok. pic.twitter.com/5rNWOCpOon

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 26, 2025

The stunt was meant to embarrass the Israeli leader. But it was just that, a stunt, said Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon, who explained that the countries participating in it brought in a large number of junior staff members prior to Netanyahu going to the podium to make the walk-out look more dramatic.

According to Danon, most nations respectfully remained in the hall to listen to Netanyahu. But you would hardly know it if your primarily source of information was mainstream American media, much of which headlined its stories by claiming the world had turned its back on Bibi.

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