Netanyahu will not meet with Jewish leaders

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not meet with heads of Jewish organisations in the US during his visit to New York in a fortnight according to media reports.

Netanyahu is due to attend the opening of the UN General Assembly after meeting with members of Jewish organisations in Argentina and Mexico.

Yesterday, Israeli news site Walla quoted an American Jewish source as saying that he expects Netanyahu to hold personal meetings with a group of American Jewish organisations but not to hold a big joint meeting with them.

He added that there are disagreements between the Jewish groups in America and the Israeli government because of a ban which is in place at the Buraq Wall (also known as the Western Wall) which prevents reformist and conservative Jews from praying there.

In recent years, Netanyahu has held large meetings with the heads of Jewish organisations in the United States. The last meeting of this kind was held in 2014.

Read: Trump reportedly set to meet Netanyahu and Abbas at UN General Assembly

Netanyahu also declined to hold a major meeting with heads of American Jewish organisations during his visit to Washington to meet with new US President Donald Trump last February.

On Sunday, Netanyahu will travel to Latin America and the United States for a ten-day tour. He will visit Argentina, Colombia and Mexico where he will meet heads of states as well as the president of Paraguay who will be on a visit to Argentina at the same time.

In New York, Netanyahu is expected to meet with Trump on the sidelines of the opening of the United Nations General Assembly.

The head of the Jewish Agency, Natan Sharansky, said that “more Jews are moving away from Israel every day, the situation is getting more dangerous, the number of young people who are moving away from us is increasing and they are becoming indifferent and uncertain about whether they will follow our path or not.”