Benjamin Netanyahu will touch down in New York for barely eight hours on Thursday, having scrapped a planned Texas stop with Elon Musk and opted to skirt John F. Kennedy International Airport altogether, as the Israeli prime minister braces for mass protests and a New York mayor who has vowed to see him arrested under an International Criminal Court warrant.
Netanyahu is due to land in New York on Thursday (September 24) morning, address the General Assembly at 2 pm New York time, and depart for Israel the same evening. He has cancelled the overnight stay altogether, dropped the planned Texas meeting with Musk, and Israeli journalists who typically accompany the prime minister will not be aboard his official aircraft for this trip.
Israeli news outlets have pointed to a mix of anticipated protests and security concerns behind the abrupt change in plans. Reports from Ynet suggest Netanyahu’s aircraft will avoid landing at JFK altogether and will instead land in New Jersey. While some news reports linked this change to friction with New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, others attributed the switch to standard logistical and security planning around the prime minister’s aircraft.
No arrest
Mamdani criticised Netanyahu for the killing of Palestinians and vowed to arrest the Israeli PM should he set foot in New York, citing the International Criminal Court’s warrant against him. The mayor, though, conceded in July that the city lacks the legal authority to carry out such an arrest, instead urging Washington to join the ICC and act on the warrant. He has continued to call Netanyahu a war criminal over Israel’s continued killing of civilians in Gaza, including children. Mamdani, however, has said he is not going to join the protests and is working with the NYPD on security arrangements near the UN.
The ICC warrants against Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant were issued in November 2024, based on findings that there were reasonable grounds to hold them criminally responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel has rejected the court’s findings outright and does not accept its jurisdiction; the United States, like Israel, is not party to the Rome Statute establishing the ICC. President Donald Trump stated in July that Netanyahu would not face arrest on US soil.
Security around the visit is expected to be unusually tight, with heavier-than-normal Secret Service involvement reported in preparations. Israeli officials are said to be bracing for a frosty reception both outside the UN building and within the assembly hall itself, where diplomats may again walk out during his remarks – a scene that also played out during his address last year.
Israel’s elections
Netanyahu is not scheduled to meet Trump during the trip, and it remains unclear whether a sit-down with Secretary of State Marco Rubio will take place. His speech is expected to focus heavily on Iran ahead of Israel’s general election next month, with an eye towards domestic political messaging as much as the international audience in the chamber.
The visit unfolds against the backdrop of a fragile October 2025 ceasefire that has done little to halt Israeli strikes and ground operations in Gaza. More than 73,900 Palestinians have been killed and close to 175,000 wounded since the war began in October 2023, including roughly 1,400 deaths since the truce nominally took hold. The majority of Gaza's 2.1 million residents remain displaced, with humanitarian access still severely constrained.
