The US says it will deny or revoke visas for Palestinian officials wishing to travel to New York next month to attend the UN General Assembly session.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio blamed them for undermining peace efforts and for seeking “the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state”.
The decision is unusual – the US, as host country, is expected to facilitate travel for officials of all countries wishing to visit the UN headquarters.
The ban comes as France spearheads international efforts to recognise a state of Palestine at the GA session. Donald Trump’s administration has fully backed Israel in voicing opposition to such a move.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has constantly rejected the idea of a two-state solution – the long-time international formula to resolve the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict. It envisages an independent Palestinian state being created alongside Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Netanyahu says recognition of a Palestinian state would amount to rewarding “Hamas’s monstrous terrorism”.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
More than 63,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Hamas has been running the Gaza Strip for years, with its rival Fatah in charge in the West Bank.
Both are supposed to be governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) led by President Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas is also in charge of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) – the umbrella organisation which represents Palestinians at international fora. The PLO has had observer status at the UN since 1974. It can participate in meetings but not vote on resolutions.
In his announcement on Friday, Rubio said: “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.”
He said they must also end efforts to bypass negotiations by pursuing legal cases against Israel at international courts.
Rubio said Palestinian representatives at the UN mission in New York could attend the meetings in accordance with the UN Headquarters Agreement – the document that regulates issued regarding the operations of the UN in the US.
It is unclear, however, if the US move to deny or revoke visas complies with that document, which outlines that foreign officials’ attendance in New York shall not be impeded by the US “irrespective of the relations” between their respective governments and the US.
In its reaction, the office of the PA president said the decision “stands in clear contradiction to international law and the UN Headquarters Agreement, particularly since the State of Palestine is an observer member of the United Nations”.
It urged the US to reverse the move.
UN spokesman Stephanne Dujarric also said the UN would discuss with the US State Department and hoped the issue would be resolved.
“It is important that all member states, permanent observers, be able to be represented, especially I think in this case with the, as we know, the upcoming two-state solution meeting that France and Saudi Arabia will host at the beginning of the GA,” Mr Dujarric said.
Apart from France, the UK, Canada and Australia have also announced plans to recognise a Palestinian state at the GA meeting next month.
The state of Palestine is currently recognised by 147 of the UN’s 193 member states.
But with no recognised borders, Israeli settlers controlling large parts of the West Bank – illegal under international law – and calls to do the same in Gaza, any recognition of a Palestinian state would not change much on the ground.
