US again denies Abbas visa as he addresses UN from Ramallah
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the UN General Assembly on Thursday through prerecorded remarks from his office in Ramallah after the United States denied him and other top Palestinian officials visas to attend the gathering for the second year in a row.
In his address, Abbas said, "The Palestinian people face one of the most dangerous times in its history," citing the long military occupation in the West Bank and the war in Gaza. He also said Israel "has targeted all of the basic necessities of life". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to speak in person later in the afternoon.
Abbas, now 90, has led the Palestinian Authority since 2005. The authority is the internationally recognised representative of the Palestinian people. But his support among Palestinians has weakened over the years amid corruption and the sometimes violent expansion of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Under Abbas, Palestine has been recognised as a country by a majority of UN member states. However, those largely symbolic moves have not changed the reality of Israel's decades-long military occupation in the West Bank. During the war in Gaza, Abbas and the Palestinian Authority have also been largely sidelined from negotiations over Gaza's future in favour of a transition process led by President Donald Trump's Board of Peace.
The Palestinian Authority was created under a series of peace agreements with Israel in the 1990s and administers semi-autonomous areas of the West Bank while relying heavily on foreign aid. It was pushed out of Gaza after Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and then violently seized control. Abbas was elected in 2005 to what was meant to be a four-year term, and the authority has not held presidential or legislative elections since 2006.
Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 war, and Palestinians want both as part of a future state. The Palestinians and much of the international community regard the settlements as illegal and as an obstacle to creating a viable, contiguous Palestinian state. Abbas recorded his video message on Wednesday, and his address underscored both the continuing crisis facing Palestinians and the limited role his administration has had during the Gaza war.
