Netanyahu said that Israel is yet to be convinced of the effectiveness of the UN against Iran [EPA]

Israel's prime minister urged Western states to stand up to what he called the Iranian government's "religious fanaticism" in an address to the body in New York on Thursday.

"The struggle against Iran pits civilisation against barbarism …  History could be reversed if primitive fanaticism acquires deadly weapons," he told UN delegates.

Israel, the United States and several European nations have repeatedly alleged that Iran is seeking to build weapons under its nuclear programme, which Tehran denies.

"The jury is still out on the United Nations, and the signs are not encouraging," he said.

Netanyahu also slammed Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for calling the Holocaust a "lie," showing to the UN General Assembly copies of Nazi documents for the extermination of Jews during World War II.

"Are these plans of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp where 1 million Jews were murdered a lie too?" he said, citing US President Barack Obama's visit to one of the death camps earlier this year.

"Did President Obama pay tribute to a lie?" he said.

UN report attacked

Netanyahu criticised the recent UN-backed Goldstone Commission Report into Israel's war on Gaza in December and January, which concluded there was substantial evidence to suggest that Israel committed war crimes during its offensive on the Palestinian territory.

"Rather than condemn terrorism, some at the UN are condemning its victims ... It is not easy to fight terrorists firing from schools and mosques," he said, referring to Palestinian armed groups.

Netanyahu emphasised that all Palestinians must formally recognise the state of Israel, and said that Israeli leaders had already recognised that a Palestinian state should be formed.

"Say 'yes' to a Jewish state," Netanyahu said, in an appeal to the Palestinians.

"The Jewish people are not foreign conquerors in the land of Israel."

He said that while the Palestinians were entitled to the same rights as Israel, a future Palestinian state must be "effectively demilitarised" in order to guarantee Israel's security.

Israel was justified in its military action in Gaza, Netanyahu told the UN [AFP]

Israeli 'lies'

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said that Netanyahu’s speech was "full of lies".

He pointed out that, although Netanyahu spoke about "the moral bankruptcy and dangers of denying the Holocaust", it was in fact Israel that "committed the biggest massacre of the century" when it launched its attack on Gaza that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians in December and January of this year.

Fares Braizat, a social and economic survey research institutor at Qatar University, said: "I think there is a very serious problem of legitimacy that Netanyahu is trying to defend.

"It was reflected in his speech that Israel does not have legitimacy inside the chamber where ... it is condemned repeatedly and its actions are condemned repeatedly."

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