LAWRENCE, Kan. — President Obama will not meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel when he travels to Washington in March to address a joint session of Congress, the White House said on Thursday, citing a policy against receiving foreign leaders close to their elections.

“As a matter of longstanding practice and principle, we do not see heads of state or candidates in close proximity to their elections, so as to avoid the appearance of influencing a democratic election in a foreign country,” Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said in a statement. “Accordingly, the president will not be meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu because of the proximity to the Israeli election, which is just two weeks after his planned address to the U.S. Congress.”