GOP candidate Cruz seeks to shutter PLO’s Washington office

WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz called on Secretary of State John Kerry to pull the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s permit to maintain a Washington DC office as Congress passed a spending bill Friday reasserting the legal basis to shut the quasi-consulate down.

In a letter to Kerry released Monday by Cruz’s office, signed by 32 members of Congress, the senator cited reports by the NGO Palestinian Media Watch that the PLO funds terrorism by paying jailed terrorists. This practice, they complained, rewards and incentivizes attacks on Israelis.

Cruz, who recently overtook Senator Marco Rubio and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson to slide into second place in the national polls behind Donald Trump, linked the letter to the terror attacks Israel has experienced since the early fall.

“Our close ally Israel is enduring another wave of Palestinian terrorism in the form of car-ramming, rock-throwing, and brutal knife attacks,” Cruz wrote in a statement issued Monday.

“These horrific acts of terrorism are due to the continued incitement and glorification of violence by Palestinian leadership,” Cruz said. “It is long past time for the United States to hold the PLO and its leaders accountable for engaging in such rampant incitement, for celebrating the murder of Jews, and for providing payment to Palestinian terrorists jailed in Israel and their families. We must make it clear such actions are blatantly unacceptable and close the PLO office in Washington, D.C.”

The Washington PLO office functions as the equivalent of a Palestinian Authority embassy in the American capital, performing both consular and diplomatic functions.

In 1987, Congress declared it unlawful “to establish or maintain an office, headquarters, premises, or other facilities or establishments within the jurisdiction of the United States at the behest or direction of, or with funds provided by the Palestine Liberation Organization or any of its constituent groups, any successor to any of those, or any agents thereof.” Legislation, however, permitted the president to waive the restriction, a common legislative escape route for laws that delve into foreign policy.

Since the Clinton administration, three successive presidents have waived the provision, but the office’s continued presence in Washington has repeatedly been criticized, particularly during times of increased tension.

“For too long the PLO has not just tolerated acts of terrorism against the Israeli people — but incited others to commit acts of violence in the name of jihad,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, who co-authored the letter with Cruz. “It goes against everything we stand for as an American people to allow the PLO to retain an office in our nation’s capital, considering its long and well-documented history of encouraging violence and terror against our Israeli allies. It’s time we send a clear signal that the United States does not tolerate extremism and demonstrate our unwavering support for our allies in Israel by revoking this waiver.”

The letter was sent on Friday, the same day that Congress voted to approve an omnibus spending bill that renewed the language concerning the status of the PLO office. The 2009-page bill includes carry-over provisions that threaten to shut down the Washington office and cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) if the Palestinian leadership pursues investigations against Israel in the International Criminal Court, attempts to bypass negotiations and unilaterally seek membership in the United Nations or forms a unity government with Hamas.

Members of Congress called for this law to be enforced repeatedly – after the Fatah leadership reached a government agreement with Hamas in spring 2014, and after Abbas upgraded the Palestinian Authority’s United Nations status to that of a non-member observer state.

Friday’s letter focused, however, on recent allegations of incitement under the direction of Palestinian Authority leaders represented by the PLO delegation to Washington.

“In recent months, Israel has seen a dramatic increase in deadly attacks carried out by Palestinians sympathetic to the message of hatred and intolerance proclaimed by leaders within the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). The spike in violence in Israel is directly connected to the Palestinian government’s teaching of hate and glorification of terrorism,” the letter complained.

“Shockingly, despite being complicit in spreading hatred and terror, the PLO retains an office in Washington, D.C.,” the letter added, noting that both Houses of Congress had passed resolutions in the fall condemning Palestinian incitement. “The United States government has an obligation to publicly denounce the PLO’s actions and should immediately revoke its waiver. Allowing the PLO to maintain an office in Washington, D.C. provides no benefit to the United States or the peace process.”

Asking that the State Department revoke the PLO office waiver, the members of Congress argued that “closing the PLO office in Washington, D.C. would send a clear statement that the kind of incitement to violence perpetrated by the PLO and its leaders will not be tolerated.”

Cruz, who is outspoken in his support for Israel on the campaign trail and in the Senate, has tussled with the PLO’s Washington office in the past. In November, the PLO delegation to the United States issued a statement excoriating the Texas senator for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing he chaired to discuss Palestinian and Iranian terrorism.

The statement described the hearing as “biased and inflammatory,” accusing Cruz’s hearing of having “conflated all Palestinians as terrorists and failed to represent any Palestinian viewpoint in an obvious effort to defame the Palestinian people.” The hearing, the PLO complained, “failed to mention recent acts of Israeli incitement.”

The Palestinian delegation chalked Cruz’s position up to election grandstanding, asserting that “defending Israel should not come at the expense of Palestinians and for narrow political interest sought by presidential hopefuls who are appealing to pro-Israeli votes.”