\n Benjamin Netanyahu allegedly fears his appearance at the UNGA could be met with protests [Getty]<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> has dramatically shortened his visit to New York for the UN General Assembly<\/a>, amid planned protests, heightened security and tensions with Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> over the International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest.<\/p>\n Netanyahu is expected to arrive in the US on Thursday morning, address the General Assembly at 2pm New York time and leave for Israel later that evening, according to Israeli media reports.<\/p>\n The Israeli leader is not expected to spend a single night in the US, cutting what had initially been planned as a longer visit to just several hours. He has also cancelled a planned stop in Texas to meet billionaire Elon Musk and will not take Israeli journalists aboard his official “Wing of Zion” aircraft.<\/p>\n Israeli media cited planned protests and security concerns among the reasons for the unusually brief visit.<\/p>\n According to Ynet, Netanyahu’s plane is expected to avoid New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and instead land in neighbouring New Jersey.<\/p>\n The outlet linked the arrangements partly to tensions with Mamdani, who has repeatedly called for Netanyahu to face arrest over the ICC warrant.<\/p>\n Other Israeli reporting, however, has attributed the decision to avoid JFK to logistical and security considerations surrounding Netanyahu’s aircraft.<\/p>\n Mamdani has been an outspoken critic of Netanyahu and previously pledged to have the Israeli leader arrested if he travelled to New York, citing the ICC warrant issued against him in November 2024.<\/p>\n The mayor acknowledged in July, however, that New York City does not independently possess the legal authority to enforce the warrant.<\/p>\n “It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant,” Mamdani said at the time, while calling on the US federal government to join the ICC and execute it.<\/p>\n He has nevertheless maintained that Netanyahu is not welcome in New York and has continued to describe him as a war criminal over Israel’s actions in Gaza.<\/p>\n The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024, saying there were reasonable grounds to believe they bore criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Israel’s war on Gaza.<\/p>\n Israel rejects the allegations and does not recognise the court’s jurisdiction. The US is also not a member of the ICC.<\/p>\n US President Donald Trump said in July that Netanyahu would not be arrested in the United States.<\/p>\n Heavy security and protests expected<\/p>\n Netanyahu is expected to receive unusually heavy security protection during his brief stay, with US Secret Service involvement in preparations for the visit reportedly greater than usual.<\/p>\n Large demonstrations are also expected in New York during his visit.<\/p>\n Haaretz reported that Netanyahu is preparing for a hostile reception both on the streets and inside the General Assembly, where Israeli officials anticipate that ambassadors and other delegates could walk out or stage protests during his speech.<\/p>\n A mass walkout took place when Netanyahu addressed the General Assembly last year.<\/p>\n Mamdani has said he does not plan to participate in protests against Netanyahu during the visit and has been coordinating with the New York Police Department over security surrounding UNGA.<\/p>\n Netanyahu is not expected to meet Trump during the trip, and a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also not been confirmed.<\/p>\n His address comes around a month before Israel’s general election, with Israeli media reporting that the speech is expected to focus heavily on Iran while also being aimed at a domestic Israeli audience.<\/p>\n Israeli officials are meanwhile hoping protests inside the General Assembly will be smaller than last year, amid international attention on the war with Iran and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n Israel continues to occupy most of the Gaza Strip and carry out deadly air strikes, shelling and gunfire despite the October 2025 ceasefire.<\/p>\n More than 73,900 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 175,000 wounded since October 2023, including around 1,400 killed since the ceasefire took effect.<\/p>\n Most of Gaza’s roughly 2.1 million people remain displaced, while Israeli restrictions continue to impede the entry of critical humanitarian and reconstruction supplies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benjamin Netanyahu allegedly fears his appearance at the UNGA could be met with protests [Getty] Israeli Prime Minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3895,153,16028,9,56,63,65,64,113799,82],"class_list":["post-354363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-donald-trump","tag-icc","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-un-general-assembly","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}