Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his delegation were refused visas to enter the US to attend last week’s high-level general debate of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, forcing him to address the sympathetic audience through a prerecorded video.
The order to ban Abbas, who has opposed violence both by Hamas and Israel’s government, came from President Donald Trump through his Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a diehard champion of the Israeli government and admirer of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. When making the announcement, the US criticized Abbas for trying to “internationalize” the Israel-Palestine conflict.
On Sept. 18, the UNGA voted 152-3 in favor of allowing Palestine to submit a prerecorded address from Abbas because Trump and Rubio refused to issue the visas. The three countries voting against that accommodation were the US, Israel and Paraguay.
It was the second year in a row that Abbas was prevented from addressing the UN, in violation of the Agreement Regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations the US signed when the organization was founded in 1947. Section 11 of the agreement says that US federal, state and local authorities “shall not impose any impediments to transit to or from the headquarters district” for representatives covered by the agreement and other people invited to the UN headquarters on official business.
In the UN’s history, the US has issued bans three times — and every time the target has been an Arab Muslim
Ray Hanania
In the UN’s history, the US has issued such a ban three times — and every time the target has been an Arab Muslim: Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat in 1988 and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2025 and 2026.
In 1988, the UNGA had more power than it does today and it voted, in an extraordinary act, to relocate the session from New York City to Geneva so that Arafat could speak. He delivered a significant speech on peace that Israel was trying to suppress. Arafat proposed a three-point plan to end the conflict: an international conference in Geneva held under UN auspices; the placing of occupied Palestinian land under temporary UN supervision, with peacekeeping forces deployed and Israeli troops withdrawn; and a comprehensive settlement among all parties to the Arab-Israeli conflict. He also made a direct appeal to Israeli citizens to join the peace movement.
That speech helped lead to the breakthrough that ultimately led then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to sign the Oslo I Accord with Arafat at the White House on Sept. 13, 1993.
Israel has tried to avoid any suggestion that the Palestinians want peace and, with the help of the US and a clearly biased mainstream media, has constantly distorted the conflict, emphasizing Palestinian attacks while excusing Israeli violence.
It was a disciple of Netanyahu, a radicalized Israeli activist, who assassinated Rabin in November 1995. This effectively brought the peace process to an end and fueled the rise of Netanyahu and his mentor, Ariel Sharon, an Israeli general accused of killing Palestinians during raids in the 1950s.
Trump and Rubio still welcomed Israeli PM Netanyahu to the UN, despite his own controversies
Ray Hanania
Trump and Rubio welcomed Netanyahu to the UN, despite his own controversies. Netanyahu has been indicted by the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for him in late 2024 on charges of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu also faces multiple corruption charges in Israel, but that case has been delayed by internal political manipulation.
Before and during his speech to the UN last week, the representatives of more than 50 nations walked out, including nearly every Arab and Muslim country. Netanyahu denounced those who boycotted him as “moral cowards.” But the truth is that Netanyahu is the bigger coward when it comes to embracing peace and stopping terrorism.
Instead of focusing on Israeli war crimes, America and the fast-narrowing group of Israel’s supporters have strongly defended Netanyahu. One of their targets was New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who criticized Netanyahu and rightly demanded that he be arrested, calling him a “war criminal” and the “architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people.”
Ironically, the Trump administration’s continued support of Netanyahu is one of the major factors fueling a collapse in the Republican Party’s chances of holding on to control of the House of Representatives and even the Senate, which pollsters predict will be taken by the Democrats in November’s midterm elections.
In truth, though, the Democrats controlling Congress will not restore efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as most leading Democrats are as pro-Israel as the most extreme Republicans.
There is, however, a change brewing in the US, with more and more Americans criticizing Israel and breaking with Democrats and Republicans that support it. We are still a long way from seeing real change in America’s policies toward Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, but it is a trend that is gaining momentum.
In the meantime, UNGA members would do well to explore the possibility of relocating the UN from the US to a nation that has a much more objective view of the world, such as somewhere in the Arab or Muslim world. In the Middle East, the UN could find a much more principled home for its lofty and important goals — one that is not saddled with historic biases and hypocrisies like those we see today.