Diplomats walk out en masse from Iran president's speech

(CNN) - Dozens of international envoys walked out of a speech by Iran's president Monday as he accused Israel of having a "racist government" and committing genocide.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the west of making "an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering ... in order to establish a totally racist government in occupied Palestine."

Many delegates cheered his words as a minority of diplomats collected their papers and briefcases and left the room.

He paused a moment amid the uproar, then continued: "In fact, in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive racist regime in Palestine.

"It is all the more regrettable that a number of Western governments and the United States have committed themselves to defend those racist perpetrators of genocide," he said, echoing Tehran's official line on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel was established in 1948 as a homeland for the Jewish people in the wake of the Holocaust, on land also claimed by the Palestinians.

Ahmadinejad said Zionism, the Jewish national movement, "personifies racism," and accused Zionists of wielding economic and political resources to silence opponents.

He also blasted the United States-led invasion of Afghanistan in his speech at a controversial U.N. anti-racism conference in Geneva.