Abbas, Denied US Visa Again, Addresses UN by Prerecorded Video

A SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR SIDELINED

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the UN General Assembly on Thursday via prerecorded remarks from his office in Ramallah, after the United States denied him and other top Palestinian officials visas to attend in person for the second year running. The 90-year-old leader's popularity at home and relevance abroad have both waned, but in his remarks he made clear he did not intend to quietly accept being sidelined. "We will not leave our homeland. We will not accept displacement. And we will not allow anyone to decide our future on our behalf," Abbas said. As he spoke, the Israeli delegation's seats in the General Assembly hall sat empty.

A CALL FOR ACTION, NOT JUST WORDS

Though world leaders have repeatedly invoked the plight of Palestinians throughout the week, Abbas urged the international community toward more tangible steps against Israel. "How long will some countries continue to remain silent about Israel, or continue supplying it with weapons that it uses against our people? The world has witnessed the enormous cost in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," he said. "What, then, is the international community waiting for before it acts to protect the Palestinian people?" He described Gaza in stark terms: "Neighborhoods, cities, refugee camps, institutions, schools, universities, hospitals, mosques, and churches have been destroyed. Every foundation of life, and the future of entire generations, has been targeted."

Abbas called for a two-state solution under which Palestinians could live "alongside the state of Israel," and argued that Gaza, east Jerusalem and the West Bank must eventually be governed as one: "one state, one government, one law and one legitimate entity authorized to bear arms." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was scheduled to address the assembly in person later Thursday, has said no Palestinian state will be established while he leads Israel and has argued the Palestinian Authority is not a partner for peace.

A WEAKENED LEADER, A STALLED PROCESS

Abbas has led the Palestinian Authority, the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people, since 2005, but his support among Palestinians has eroded over years of corruption allegations and anger over the authority's security cooperation with Israel. The authority has not held presidential or legislative elections since 2006, though Abbas promised in his address that both were on the horizon, something international donor countries have long demanded as a condition of aid. Palestine has been recognized as a state by a majority of UN member states under Abbas, but on the ground in the West Bank those largely symbolic moves have not affected Israel's decades-long military occupation.

Throughout the war in Gaza, Abbas and the Palestinian Authority have been largely sidelined from negotiations over the territory's postwar future, with the international community instead backing President Trump's plan for a Board of Peace of apolitical administrators to govern Gaza. A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas reached last October halted the heaviest fighting and freed the remaining hostages, but further steps, including reconstruction, have since stalled; Israel maintains control of most of Gaza and continues airstrikes near military-held zones, while Hamas has neither disarmed nor relinquished power.

WHY IT MATTERS

Abbas's repeated exclusion from the UN podium underscores how far the Palestinian Authority has been pushed to the margins of both the Gaza ceasefire process and broader diplomacy, even as he continues to press, from a distance, for a two-state outcome that Netanyahu has ruled out entirely.