The members of the Palestinian Government of President Mahmoud Abbas will not be able to travel to the United Nations General Assembly next month after Secretary of State Frame Rubio revoked his visas.
The prohibition occurs when several allies of the United States have declared that they would recognize a Palestinian State at the World Leaders Meeting at the UN Headquarters in New York in response to the growing assault of Israel in northern Gaza, which intensified on Friday after the country announced that the “initial stages” of its operation in the family area had begun.
Directed by Abbas, who has not faced an election in almost two decades, the Palestinian authority manages parts of Western West Bank occupied by Israel. He has not ruled in Gaza since 2007 when the security forces of the Palestinian President were expelled by the Islamic militant group Hamas.
In June, Abbas wrote a letter to the president of France in which he condemned Hamas’ attack and asked the hostages taken by the militant group to be released.
In a statement on Friday, the State Department said the Trump administration was reaffirming its “commitment not to reward terrorism,” and Rubio was revoking visas of the Palestinian authority (PA) and the Palestinian Liberation Organization for Umbrella (PLO).
Before they can be considered “partners for peace,” the statement said that “terrorism must constantly repudiate”, including terrorist attacks led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which saw 1,200 people killed and around 250 people taken as hostages, and “end incitement to terrorism in education.”
He added that the AP must end its efforts “to ensure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state.”
“Both steps contributed materially to Hamas’ refusal to free their hostages, and the breakdown of Gaza Cesefire’s conversations,” reads the statement, and added that the per permanent mission of the UN of the UN of the Palestinian authority in New York would not be affected by the restrictions.
According to a “UN Headquarters Agreement” in 1947, the United States is generally required to allow the access of foreign diplomats to the UN in New York. After the United States refused to issue a visa to the leader of the PLO Yasser Arafat in 1988, the UN General Assembly held a meeting that year in Geneva instead of New York to be able to address it.
Washington has said that you can deny visas for safety, extremism and foreign policy reasons. Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar welcomed the decision of the State Department.
But Riy Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, told journalists on Friday that, for what he knew, “the head of our delegation is President Mahmoud Abbas, and he comes to represent the state of Palestine and the Palestinian people at that conference.”
In the revocations of the visa, he added: “We will see exactly what it means and how it applies to any of our delegation, and we will respond accordingly.”
Several European foreigners criticized the decision before a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday. A UN General Assembly “cannot be subject to restrictions on access,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters.
It is expected that France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia formally recognize a Palestinian State in the Assembly, a movement to which the Trump administration has opposed. The state of Palestine is currently recognized by 147 of the 193 UN Member States.
The revocations of the visa occurred in the midst of the growing global anger for hunger in Gaza after more than 22 months of war, which has seen more than 63,000 people murdered, according to health officials in the enclave.
After launching a new assault north of the enclave earlier this week, Israel said Friday that Gaza City had become a dangerous combat zone.
The operation is expected around the largest city in the strip displaced thousands and after Israel held strong strikes in the area on Friday, many of which have been displaced several times during the war, began to flee. As the tanks advanced in several areas, in the streets of the city of Gaza they were full of newly displaced families.
Um Warda said he couldn’t sleep while bombings shook the ground under it, forcing her to flee “without food, without water.”
“We don’t even know if we are alive or dead,” he said. “I have no idea where we will go or what will happen to us.”
Nearby, Ammar Ahmad Abu Warda, 21 years old and freshly married, brought the belongings on his shoulders, but said he had lost the notion of his wife and children.
“All my life is gone,” he said. “This is my land, my house, both have gone, but I will stay.”
