{"id":124279,"date":"2025-09-01T05:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T05:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/124279\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T05:38:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T05:38:09","slug":"u-s-suspends-visas-for-palestinian-passport-holders-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/124279\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Suspends Visas for Palestinian Passport Holders: What to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump Administration has suspended nearly all types of nonimmigrant visas for Palestinian passport holders, U.S. officials told the New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The blanket suspension marks an escalation from earlier restrictions on Palestinians seeking to enter the U.S. The policy, issued in an Aug. 18 cable from the State Department to all U.S. embassies and consulates, temporarily suspends visas for medical treatment, university studies, visits to friends or relatives, and business, according to the Times. It is not clear how long the suspension will remain in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the Department has determined that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is a competent authority for passport issuing purposes \u2026 the United States does NOT recognize the PA as a \u2018foreign government,\u2019\u201d the cable said, according to CNN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to know about the new measure.<\/p>\n

Policy expands U.S. visa curbs on Palestinians<\/p>\n

The internal message reportedly instructed embassies and consulates to deny nonimmigrant visas to \u201call otherwise eligible Palestinian Authority passport holders.\u201d The guidance also applies to Palestinian passport holders applying for diplomatic or official visas, the cable reportedly said.<\/p>\n

The cable reportedly instructs officials to invoke section 221-G of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act in refusing the visas, which requires U.S. officials to conduct a further review of the applicant. The policy does not affect people with dual nationalities who apply for a visa using a different passport.<\/p>\n

The State Department began revoking and denying<\/a> the visas of Palestinian officials last week ahead of the United Nations General Assembly this month. Earlier in August, the U.S. also said it would stop issuing<\/a> visitor visas to Palestinians from Gaza, including those seeking humanitarian and medical treatment.<\/p>\n

Palestinian passport holders\u2014whether from Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, or elsewhere\u2014will be impacted by the new measures. Palestinian Authority passports have been issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Interior, subject to Israeli approval, since 1995. It\u2019s unclear how many people hold Palestinian passports today.<\/p>\n

Measures come as international condemnation of Israel grows<\/p>\n

The directive comes as a growing number of countries have condemned Israel\u2019s ongoing military bombardment<\/a> of Gaza and what several humanitarian organizations<\/a> have described as a genocide.<\/p>\n

The nearly two-year-long Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians and nearly 2,000 Israelis (including those killed in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel), according to Gaza\u2019s Health Ministry and Israeli authorities. In the absence of independent monitoring on the ground, Gaza\u2019s Health Ministry is the primary source for casualty data relied upon by humanitarian groups, journalists, and international bodies. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants and cannot be independently verified by TIME. Data from the Israel Defense Forces indicates a Palestinian civilian death rate of 83%<\/a>. The figure for Israeli casualties includes both civilians and combatants.<\/p>\n

Several U.S. allies have criticized<\/a> Israel over its killing<\/a> of aid seekers<\/a>, humanitarian workers<\/a>, and journalists<\/a>, as well as its blockade<\/a> of humanitarian aid and forced displacement of Palestinians. Canada, France, and the U.K., said<\/a> in July that they will recognize a Palestinian state<\/a> at the upcoming U.N. General Assembly\u2014with more countries following suit\u2014prompting condemnations<\/a> from Israel<\/a> and the U.S.<\/a>, Israel\u2019s biggest ally<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Trump Administration has also cracked down on pro-Palestinian activism across the U.S., including introducing new immigration and citizenship restrictions<\/a> that include screening for \u201canti-Americanism\u201d and targeting<\/a> pro-Palestinian student activists for immigration action, which critics say has chilled free speech<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery visa decision is a national security decision, and the State Department is vetting and adjudicating visa decisions for PA passport holders accordingly,\u201d a State Department spokesperson told CNN. But not everyone accepts that pretense.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre there true national security concerns?\u201d Kerry Doyle, former lead attorney for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Biden Administration, questioned to the Times. \u201cOr is it politically based to support the position of Israel and\/or to avoid uncomfortable issues being raised when folks get here if they speak out about the issues over the war?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump Administration has suspended nearly all types of nonimmigrant visas for Palestinian passport holders, U.S. officials told…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,790,10817,3,7688,24308,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-124279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-immigration","10":"tag-israel-hamas-war","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-news-desk","13":"tag-overnight","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}