PA president’s son unsuccessfully sought to skirt US ban on Palestinian officials

Yasser Abbas, the son and top aide of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, sought to skirt a ban on Palestinian officials entering the US by using his Canadian passport, a US official and two sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.

The younger Abbas was barred at the last minute from boarding a flight from Dubai to New York on Thursday, the three sources said.

“On September 17, Mr. [Yasser] Abbas was denied boarding onto a plane headed to the United States due to a lack of proper entry documents,” a US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.

Yasser Abbas was planning to hold meetings with several countries’ UN delegations in New York. He then planned to travel to Chicago to meet with Palestinian Americans, as part of preparations for the upcoming election of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s top legislative body, the sources said.

Banned from the US, he sufficed with later flying to Canada to hold meetings with members of the Palestinian diaspora, one of the sources said.

A day before Yasser Abbas tried to travel to New York, the State Department announced its decision to extend an entry ban on officials from the PA and PLO, alleging the two bodies violated US federal legislation requiring them to renounce terrorism and accept the principle of a negotiated settlement to their conflict with Israel.

Last year, US President Donald Trump’s administration similarly interpreted the two laws to bar a PA delegation headed by Mahmoud Abbas from attending the UN General Assembly.

PA officials insist they’ve renounced violence and support a negotiated two-state solution, which Israel opposes.

Yasser Abbas — who did not respond to requests for comment — has spent significant parts of his career as a businessman in Canada and obtained citizenship during that time.

But in recent years, he has spent more time living in the West Bank, as the 90-year-old President Abbas elevated his son to the role of special presidential envoy responsible for several files pertaining to Ramallah’s foreign and domestic policy.

In May, Yasser Abbas was elected to the Fatah Central Committee, the most powerful body of the political party that currently dominates both the PA and the PLO.

His elevation has sparked allegations of nepotism and corruption, undermining the PA’s efforts to advance major governmental reforms, which include holding presidential and legislative elections in the coming months.

The PA’s Palestinian Legislative Council election is scheduled for November 27. The PLO vote, aimed at selecting new members of the organization’s Palestinian National Council, is set to take place in the weeks prior.

Mahmoud Abbas has also agreed to hold a presidential election in 2027, but no date has been set.

A PA presidential election hasn’t been held since 2005, and a PLC election hasn’t been held since 2006.

There is mounting speculation that the elder Abbas will delay the PLC election amid major ruptures within his Fatah party as well as questions as to how balloting can be held in the Gaza Strip, which is decimated by war.

Hamas is still in control of Palestinian-inhabited areas of the Strip, but Abbas has signed a decree requiring all parties participating in the Palestinian Legislative Council election to approve the PLO’s national program, which includes recognizing Israel and supporting a two-state solution — two things that Hamas rejects.

PA officials continue insisting that the PLC election will be held, but preparations for the PLO council vote are more advanced.

The PA’s Palestinian Legislative Council is elected directly by voters in the Palestinian territories, while the PLO’s Palestinian National Council is chosen through a mix of elections and appointments.

The latter body represents Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza as well as those abroad, with the latter group receiving 150 seats out of the panel of 350.

Roughly 20 seats are expected to be reserved for Palestinians living in North America, and Yasser Abbas is set to discuss those positions during his engagements in Canada, as well as Zoom meetings he will hold with PLO members in the US, whom he will not be able to meet in person.

The PA legislative body has been paralyzed by Fatah-Hamas divisions for nearly two decades, while Mahmoud Abbas gradually marginalized the PLO’s council during that period by having the PA take over many of its functions.