Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed Friday that the U.S. was “denying and revoking” the visas of senior Palestinian leaders who were set to have attended the opening of the United Nations General Assembly next month.
The reason: the Palestinian had broken U.S. law and policy by indicating that they intended to declare a Palestinian state, without a negotiated settlement with Israel to end decades of conflict.
As Breitbart News reported in July, it was inevitable that Palestinian leaders would be barred from entry, after President Donald Trump slapped sanctions on the Palestinian Authority over the statehood issue.
Rubio followed through, as the State Department explaining in a statement on Friday:
In accordance with U.S. law, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is denying and revoking visas from members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) ahead of the upcoming United Nations General Assembly. The Trump Administration has been clear: it is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the 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. The PA 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. Both steps materially contributed to Hamas’s refusal to release its hostages, and to the breakdown of the Gaza ceasefire talks.
The PA Mission to the UN will receive waivers per the UN Headquarters Agreement. The United States remains open to re-engagement that is consistent with our laws, should the PA/PLO meet their obligations and demonstrably take concrete steps to return to a constructive path of compromise and peaceful coexistence with the State of Israel.
The denial of visas will apply to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and could disrupt the Palestinians’ plans to declare statehood, as well as the intended recognition by France, the United Kingdom, Australia, and others.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Zionist Conspiracy Wants You, now available on Amazon. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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