On Sept. 22, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke to students in New York about his vision for peace at the Great Hall of The Cooper Union. Abbas urged the U.S. public to help end the Israeli occupation of Palestine and make peace.

“I come today to pledge to create the new peaceful state of Palestine,” said Abbas. “I come here today to ask you to rethink Palestine.”

Abbas acknowledged that he was speaking in a country where the people are still deeply divided on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and where biases may be held against him.

“This [country] may especially be seen by some as an odd and hard place for a faithful Muslim to talk peace,” said Abbas. “Here, all Muslims [are] in shadow of a grand view where thousands of innocent American men, women and children … were also victimized in September 11.”

Abbas is currently in New York, along with more than 140 heads of state, to attend the 69th United Nations General Assembly that convened on Sept. 23. Abbas indicated in his speech that he will continue to press for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict by presenting to the U.N. with a new timetable for peace talks that will delineate clear borders. He also plans to continue pushing for the recognition of Palestine among the international community.

Palestine is not a member state of the U.N., but has been a non-member observer state since 2012 and is currently recognized by 134 of the U.N.’s 193 member states. The United States, however, does not recognize Palestine as a state.

Abbas discussed what he described as a friendship between the U.S. and Israel.

“I made a prayer for America, who is a friend of America – not a false friend – and just as real friends will not let their friends drive drunk, a real friend of Israel will not let them engage in widespread killing of women and children,” said Abbas.

On July 31, the Unites States approved Israel’s request for munitions in spite of the U.N. condemning Israel’s attacks on civilians in Gaza, including the bombing of a U.N. shelter. The rising violence in Gaza instigated protests across the United States, such as protest outside the White House which took place in Aug. 2.

“My people in Gaza live under siege by Israel in constant fear of being randomly bombed, they live in an open air prison — not acceptable,” said Abbas. “The Palestinians today have fewer rights than African Americans in the 1950s — not acceptable.”

A recent Pew Research poll released on July 28 indicated that twice as many U.S. citizens blame Hamas’s military wing for the violence in Gaza than blame Israel. A pro-Israel rally took place at the U.N. headquarters on the morning of Abbas’ address at Cooper Union.

Members of the Zionist Organization of America handed out anti-Palestine flyers outside of Cooper Union before Abbas’ speech. Their materials included questions that challenged President Abbas, such as, “Why does your government continuously persecute Christians and drive them out of their holy city of Bethlehem?”, “What’s it like to be in the tenth year of your four-year presidential term?” and “Why did you write your doctoral thesis on Holocaust denial?”

Inside Cooper Union’s Great Hall, however, frequent bouts of applause throughout Abbas’ speech indicated that the audience was largely in favor of Abbas and his message. Abbas had hope that the youth of America would be sympathetic to his cause.

“It was the young people in America whose protests on college campuses against apartheid caused that injustice to finally end,” said Abbas. “I say this to you, you have the power to [make] … the American people to rethink Palestine … You are smart — find the truth that is not often portrayed in your media.”

Abbas referred to students, including Palestinian, Israeli and American students, that have formed peace groups on college campuses, such as the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Seeds of Peace. Younger generations in the United States have recently shown growing support for Palestine, even though a greater number of U.S. citizens support Israel overall.

NYU Abu Dhabi junior Ameed Abutteen, who grew up in Palestine, has been an active member of SJP at NYU since Spring 2014 and participated in Seeds of Peace in the past, as well as other youth-based peace groups. In his work for SJP, Abutteen said that he experienced backlash from the media. In Spring 2014, SJP placed fake eviction notices at students’ doors in reference to Palestinians being driven out of their homes. For Abutteen, Abbas’ message to rethink Palestine is a call to look past false media portrayals.

“The response that we got from Fox News and other biased media channels was very negative… It is important for the youth to study Palestinian issues for themselves instead of blindly believing what they’re told by their media channels,” said Abutteen.

Abutteen commended Abbas for improving Palestine’s image on the world stage in this past decade, but hopes that democratic elections will take place soon nevertheless.

Although some reports indicated that pro-Israel student groups planned to protest the address by booking up seats and not attending, the Great Hall was full on the night of the address. NYU Jewish life group Hillel did not have any intentions to protest or boycott the event. Hillel co-presidents Zach Schwarzbaum and Shira Mogil both attended Abbas’ address.

“We want to distance ourselves from the protests and don’t support those that are protesting the event tonight,” said Mogil after the event.

Schwarzbaum and Mogil emphasized that Hillel is a Zionist group that supports the state of Israel, but it also promotes discussion between people coming from all points of the political spectrum.

“I see this [address] as an opportunity to not only participate in this historic event, but also to thoughtfully engage with a narrative that differs from my own,” wrote Schwarzbaum.

A version of this story appeared in the Monday, Sept. 29 print edition. Email at Joey Bui at [email protected].