The United States is denying new visas and revoking old ones from individuals associated with the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority ahead of the annual U.N. General Assembly in September, the U.S. State Department announced on Friday.
“The Trump administration has been clear: It is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and P.A. accountable for not complying with their commitments and for undermining the prospects for peace,” read a memo. “Before the PLO and P.A. can be considered partners for peace, they must consistently repudiate terrorism, including the Oct. 7 massacre, and end incitement to terrorism in education.”
“The P.A. must also end its attempts to bypass negotiations through international lawfare campaigns, including appeals to the ICC and ICJ, and efforts to secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state,” the statement continued. “Both steps materially contributed to Hamas’s refusal to release its hostages, and to the breakdown of the Gaza ceasefire talks.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) posted on X that “the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization pay terrorists to kill civilians, including Americans in Israel. The terrorists who run this pay-for-slay scheme have no business setting foot in the United States.”
Following an informal meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Copenhagen on Saturday, E.U. foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said, “In the light of the existing agreements between the U.N. and its host state, we all urge for [the visa denial] decision to be reconsidered,” AFP reported.
The P.A. mission to the United Nations will still receive waivers to attend the meeting of the General Assembly.
