Abbas addresses UN General Assembly by video after US visa refusal

Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York by pre-recorded video rather than in person, after the United States again declined to grant him a visa. Ynet reported that Abbas described the present moment as a dangerous period for the Palestinian people and asked the international community how much longer it intended to stay silent.

In the address, Abbas called on US President Donald Trump to lift the sanctions imposed on him and to return to discussion of a two-state solution. He also spoke about violence in Judea and Samaria, the territory widely referred to internationally as the West Bank, which he characterised as settler terrorism and as a colonial scheme, saying Palestinians would remain on their land. The Jerusalem Post reported that Abbas said the Palestinian Authority seeks a non-militarised Palestinian state living in security and peace alongside Israel.

Why the speech was delivered on screen

The annual high-level week of the General Assembly brings heads of state and government to UN headquarters in New York, where each delegation is given a slot to speak from the podium. Leaders who cannot travel may submit a pre-recorded video message instead, an option that became routine during the pandemic years and has remained available since.

Abbas used that route because his entry to the United States was blocked. Ynet described the visa refusal as a repeat of an earlier denial, and noted that this was not the first time he had spoken to the assembly remotely. The photograph distributed by Reuters and carried by The Jerusalem Post shows the chairman appearing on the hall's screens during the 81st session of the assembly.

Who Mahmoud Abbas is

Abbas heads the Palestinian Authority, the self-governing body established under the Oslo accords that administers parts of Judea and Samaria. He is also chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and is referred to by the Authority as president of the State of Palestine, the title used in the Reuters caption published with The Jerusalem Post's report. In Israeli media he is commonly called Abu Mazen, his traditional Arabic honorific. He is widely known in Israel by that name, which is why Hebrew coverage of the speech used it in the headline.

The sanctions he asked Trump to lift

Abbas directed part of his address at the American administration, asking that measures imposed on him be withdrawn and that talks on a two-state framework resume. The reports available do not set out when those measures were imposed, what they cover, or which Palestinian officials besides Abbas they affect. Neither Ynet nor The Jerusalem Post gives the text of the American decision on his visa or the reason offered for it.

Settler violence in Judea and Samaria

The section of the speech on violence in Judea and Samaria reflects a long-running dispute. Palestinian officials and international bodies have raised incidents involving Israeli residents of settlements and Palestinian villagers; Israeli authorities treat such incidents as criminal matters for the police and the security services. Abbas used the term settler terrorism, according to Ynet's account, and framed the pattern as colonial in nature. The reports do not include any Israeli government response to that specific characterisation.

Israel's reaction

The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded on the social platform X while the speech was still in progress, posting a mocking message that treated each statement by Abbas as a falsehood and joked about drinking a shot for every one. The ministry's post said it was only a few minutes into the address and already drunk. The account did not identify which statements it disputed.

Ynet reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to address the General Assembly the same evening. The reports carry no advance text or summary of what the prime minister planned to say.

What the reports do not say

None of the three reports gives the full text or a transcript of the address, so the material available covers only the passages each organisation chose to highlight. There is no indication of how long Abbas spoke, how the hall reacted, or whether any delegations walked out. The reports do not say which countries' representatives were present.

They also do not explain the American visa decision, do not describe the content of the sanctions Abbas referred to, and do not report any comment from the White House or the US mission to the UN. On the substance of the non-militarised state proposal, The Jerusalem Post's report relays the position as Abbas stated it without additional detail on borders, timing or security arrangements, and no other organisation in this material independently describes that part of the speech.