WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced Friday it would be denying and revoking visas for Palestinian officials ahead of the upcoming United Nations General Assembly summit in New York.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Palestinian officials to “return to a constructive path of compromise,” accusing the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority of undermining prospects for peace.
“Before the PLO and PA can be considered partners for peace, they must consistently repudiate terrorism — including the October 7 massacre — and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by U.S. law and as promised by the PLO,” Rubio said in a statement.
The Palestinian Mission to the UN will receive waivers per the UN Headquarters Agreement, Rubio said without elaborating.
The PLO is the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people, and the PA is the governing body established in the 1990s that exercises partial control over the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
In July, the State Department announced that it would deny visas to members of the PA and PLO. Palestinian officials, however, are already avoiding travel to the United States due to a 2019 law recently upheld by the Supreme Court that allows American victims of international terrorism to sue the PLO and the PA in US courts.
Relations between the United States and the PA remain fraught under the Trump administration, which signaled a downgrade in ties with the Palestinians when it merged the Palestinian Affairs office with the US Embassy in Jerusalem earlier this year.
This developing story has been updated since initial publication.