Netanyahu to face protests in NYC amid Trump’s ban of Palestinian leaders at UNGA

Thousands are expected to take to the streets of New York City on Friday, September 26 to protest the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the UN General Assembly. In line with the warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), activists are calling for the arrest of the Israeli leader who is accused of perpetuating war crimes against the Palestinian people.

Netanyahu’s presence in the United Nations is especially contested due to Trump’s decision to revoke the visas of 80 Palestinian officials, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas will give his address via video conference call.

Friday’s protest is organized by a broad coalition of groups including the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Palestinian Feminist Collective, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and the People’s Forum, under the slogans “Arrest Netanyahu”, “Stop the Genocide”, and “Sanction Israel”.

“How can a war criminal be allowed to speak to the international community while his genocidal army is committing unspeakable crimes against humanity?” said Miriam Osman with the Palestinian Youth Movement, “Palestinians are being murdered en masse in Gaza, yet the international community remains silent. Sanctions against Israel are the bare minimum.”

Since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, visits by Israeli leaders to the US have revealed a stark divide: welcomed by officials in the halls of power, condemned by protesters in the streets.

Netanyahu received a standing ovation in the halls of Congress during his visit to Washington, DC in July of 2024, during the Biden administration. On the same day, a march of thousands to the US Capitol building denouncing Israel’s genocide in Palestine was subject to pepper spray, injuring several protesters.

During Netanyahu’s visit to the UNGA in September of last year, thousands marched to the United Nations headquarters in the streets of Manhattan, a day before Netanyahu proclaimed to the United Nations that “Israel seeks peace, Israel yearns for peace.”

“We face savage enemies who seek our annihilation, and we must defend ourselves against these savage murderers, [who] seek not only to destroy us but also destroy our common civilization and return all of us to a dark age of tyranny and terror,” Netanyahu said in his address to the General Assembly.

Protests against Netanyahu’s visit have centered around the demand to “arrest Netanyahu,” highlighting the ICC arrest warrant against both him and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since the ICC issued the arrest warrant against him, the Israeli Prime Minister has only visited conservative-ruled Hungary and the US. 

Yet the warrant carries no weight while Netanyahu visits Israel’s strongest ally, the United States, which never joined the ICC’s Rome Statute. “It’s vital that people in the United States speak out and demand Netanyahu’s arrest. We must keep reminding the US government and the world that the White House does not speak for the people who live and work here,” Layan Fuleihan, the education director of the People’s Forum, told Peoples Dispatch. “While the White House terrorizes immigrant families and kidnaps people off the streets, threatens and bullies the nations of the world, and pumps money and weapons to fuel endless wars, it opens its doors to the most wanted war criminal of our time.”

US President Trump delivered his remarks to the UNGA on September 23, denouncing the recognition of a Palestinian state by over 150 countries, including the UK, Canada, and France. “As if to encourage continued conflict, some of this body is seeking to unilaterally recognize the Palestinian state. The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists, for their atrocities,” Trump said.