The Palestinian observer mission at the United Nations is organizing a “stunt,” urging diplomats to walk out at the start of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the General Assembly at 9 a.m. Friday.

In a letter, the Palestinian UN mission urged delegates of countries sympathetic to their cause to bring “as many staff as possible” into the General Assembly hall and the visitors gallery in order to maximize and dramatize the effect of the walkout to UN cameras, according to the Israeli website Walla. 

“After a week filled with baseless accusations and incitement against Israel, the Palestinian representatives at the UN are once again resorting to theatrics,” the Israeli UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said. They are “even going so far as to replace senior diplomats with junior staff so that cameras capture a misleading and staged image of mass departure.”

Rather than diplomacy, the Palestinians are resorting to ”cheap stunts designed to distract from the truth,” he adds. “The Palestinian delegation has become adept at empty spectacle,” but “Israel’s voice will be heard — clearly, proudly, and unapologetically — at the United Nations. No stage-managed display can conceal the reality of Palestinian support for terror or prevent Israel from speaking the truth.”

Walking out during General Assembly speeches is a well-honed UN tradition, practiced in the past during addresses by tyrannical heads of world regimes, such as Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. While in the past some diplomats attempted to display their disdain to the democratically elected Israeli leaders, the Palestinians are hoping a growing anti-Israel sentiment would boost their chance of portraying Mr. Netanyahu as a rogue leader.