US says it’s denying visas to Palestinian officials ahead of next month’s UN General Assembly

The US State Department announces that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is denying and revoking visas from Palestinian officials ahead of next month’s United Nations General Assembly.

The move comes one month after the State Department first announced that it would pursue the policy, which it now appears to be implementing, but again doesn’t name which individuals will be barred.

Justifying the seemingly unprecedented move, the State Department announcement says, “It is in our national security interests to hold the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace.”

Barring world leaders from attending the annual General Assembly high-level week would appear to violate US commitments to the UN, but the State Department says it is in compliance with those requirements as it will still allow the existing Palestinian delegation already based in New York to attend the event by granting those diplomats visa waivers.

“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 US law and as promised by the PLO,” the statement says.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas did condemn October 7 for the first time in June.

Unlike the July 31 State Department announcement previewing the move, Friday’s statement did not mention the PA’s controversial welfare program that included payments to the families of security prisoners based on the length of their prison sentence. No explanation was given for the removal. Abbas had signed a decree in February ending the policy and replacing it with a new one, which the PA has begun implementing and invited the US to certify is now in place, though the Trump administration has yet to send a delegation to Ramallah.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the change.

“The PA must also end its attempts to bypass negotiations through international lawfare campaigns, including appeals to the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice, and efforts to secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state,” the State Department statement continues.

“Both steps materially contributed to Hamas’s refusal to release its hostages, and to the breakdown of the Gaza ceasefire talks,” the statement claims.

Rubio has claimed France’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state led Hamas to raise its demands in hostage negotiations, which collapsed the talks on July 24. But an Arab diplomat and a second source involved in the negotiations told The Times of Israel that Hamas’s new demands were submitted several hours prior to French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that Paris would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon told The Times of Israel in an interview this week that France was the party leading the latest drive for countries to recognize a Palestinian state, not the PA.

The State Department statement ends by insisting that the “US 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.”