Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Barack Obama Will Give Live Speech to Israeli Crowd

President Obama is scheduled to deliver an address directly to the Israeli people during his two-day visit to Israel.

The Obama administration has requested that Obama deliver his speech directly to at least 1,000 Israelis, Ynet reported Tuesday. The address will either be at the Israel Museum or the International Convention Center in Jerusalem.

Ynet reported that Obama will land at Ben Gurion International Airport at noon on March 20, according to the itinerary set by Jerusalem and Washington. He will be welcomed with a state reception, including speeches by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, and then will speak himself. Obama will move on to Jerusalem and the president’s residence, where there will be another official welcoming ceremony.

At the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, Obama is scheduled to lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance accompanied by Netanyahu and Peres. At Mount Herzl he will lay wreaths at the tomb of Zionism visionary Theodor Herzl and at the grave of the slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Later that day, Netanyahu and Obama will meet for official discussions and have a joint news conference and dinner.

The following day, Obama is scheduled to travel to Ramallah in the West Bank to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Following the meeting, Obama will view the Dead Sea Scrolls and visit an exhibit in the Israel Museum highlighting Israeli developments in technological fields and agriculture, according to Ynet. Following his speech, he will have dinner with Peres.

On March 22, Obama will have breakfast with Netanyahu before visiting an Iron Dome battery and the soldiers who work on it. He then will travel to Jordan.

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai is working to have Obama speak in Rabin Square in his city.

An Israeli Facebook initiative called Speak for Peace, asking that Obama present an address in the square where Rabin was assassinated during a peace rally, has garnered more than 8,000 likes.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.