THE administration of United States President Donald Trump has announced it is denying and revoking visas for members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) before the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September.
The announcement was made in a statement released by the US Department of State on Friday.
“The Trump Administration has been clear: it is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” the statement said.
The statement said the members “must consistently repudiate terrorism”, citing the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
It also accused the Palestinian Authority of “attempts to bypass negotiations” by appealing to the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice for Israeli abuses committed in both the occupied West Bank and throughout Israel’s war in Gaza, which UN experts have called a genocide.
Both the PA, which has limited self-governing authority in the occupied West Bank, and the PLO, the internationally recognised Palestinian umbrella organisation, serve as representatives for the Palestinian people and push for recognition of a Palestinian state on the global stage.
The Trump administration had previously sanctioned members of the PA and PLO, accusing them of the “glorification of violence” and “undermining peace”.
It was not immediately clear which officials the denials would apply to, as UN members and non-member observers like Palestine typically send large delegations to the UNGA.
In the statement on Friday, the US Department of State said it would grant waivers to the Palestinian Authority Mission to the UN, currently helmed by Ambassador Riyad Mansour.
Speaking to reporters shortly after the announcement, Mansour said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas planned to attend the UN gathering next month, which is set to include a September 22 segment on Palestinian rights.
He said it was unclear if the US move would affect Abbas’s planned visit.
“We will see exactly what it means and how it applies to any of our delegation, and we will respond accordingly,” he said.
In a statement carried by the Palestinian Wafa news agency, the Palestinian Authority presidency expressed “deep regret and astonishment” at the decision.
It called on the administration to “reconsider and reverse its decision, reaffirming Palestine’s full commitment to international law, UN resolutions, and obligations toward peace”.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher explained that as a host state, the US is meant to grant visas to UN member-state representatives to visit the international organisation’s headquarters.
“This is going to be controversial,” Fisher said. “When the United Nations was formed in 1947 and headquartered in New York, it was agreed that, effectively, US immigration policies would not impact people who wanted to go there on official business.”
More recently, the US denied a visa for Omar al-Bashir, the then head of state of Sudan, to visit the gathering in 2013.
“The reason for that is that he was wanted by the International Criminal Court,” Fisher said.
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also wanted by the International Criminal Court. However, he is expected to be here in New York next month.”