Allies frame Netanyahu speech as right-wing appeal, defense of record
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in New York on Thursday for a 12-hour visit ahead of his scheduled address to the United Nations General Assembly, tentatively set for 2pm ET. Allies previewing the speech told the Guardian it would read both as an address to his right-wing allies in the United States and a defense of his record as prime minister ahead of October elections that could remove him from office. The speech is expected to reject international criticism of Israel’s military operations in Gaza and the expansion of settlements in the West Bank.
Hours earlier, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas delivered a recorded address from Ramallah, broadcast in the General Assembly Hall in New York. Abbas appeared by video because the United States has denied visas to him and the Palestinian Authority delegation for the second consecutive year. In his address, Abbas condemned Israeli policies in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a “malicious colonial plan” to establish what he called a “‘Greater Israel’ and erase the Palestinian presence.” Citing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and what he described as the violent expansion of settlements in the West Bank, Abbas said the Israeli government “now threatens the very life and existence of the Palestinian people in their homeland.”
Appealing to the General Assembly, Abbas said: “Do not allow another Nakba and further massacres like those of 1948 to continue taking place,” referencing the expulsion of Palestinians during the founding of Israel. Abbas rejected what he called the “unlawful punitive measures, as well as the accusations and justifications on which they were based.” He added that “preventing the Palestinian delegation from reaching United Nations headquarters is inconsistent with the obligations of the United States as the host country.”
The US State Department said last week it was extending visa sanctions on members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority officials, citing what it described as their “failure to reform, contrary to their commitments to the United States, and their ongoing activities that undermine the prospects for peace.”
As Abbas spoke, protests were already forming on the streets near UN headquarters on Manhattan’s east side in advance of Netanyahu’s arrival. Hundreds of demonstrators crowded into midtown holding signs reading “End the Genocide” and wearing shirts with the message “Fund people not bombs.”
Earlier this summer, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani had said Netanyahu was “not welcome” in New York and said his administration was reviewing whether city police could arrest Netanyahu under an International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest. Mamdani has since tempered that stance, saying this week he would not attend the protests himself but would protect demonstrators’ “right to [protest] in this city.”
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said in an interview ahead of the speech that Mamdani’s revised stance was “too little and too late.” “You know, he set the fire, and now he’s coming to try to calm down the situation,” Danon said.
Palestinian representatives have called on diplomatic missions to bring staff for a planned walkout of Netanyahu’s speech to “send a clear message to Netanyahu and his government that no one is willing to aid, abet, or be complicit in its genocide and war crimes and illegal occupation, which all peace-loving states and peoples demand must come to an end.”
Netanyahu is not expected to meet Donald Trump, who is in Washington hosting Chinese leader Xi Jinping, nor with other senior US officials during the brief visit. Netanyahu has said he needs to return to Israel quickly because of the election campaign and the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which begins on Friday.