One nation won’t have any representatives as the Palestinian people prepare to meet in New York for the UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) 80th session in September. The United States Department of State has chosen to refuse visas to Palestinian officials who want to attend the UNGA session.
The US has generally adhered to its “headquarters agreement” with the UN, which allows officials from all over the world to obtain visas, though their applications are limited. However, there have been instances where the US has refused to grant visas to foreign diplomats from nations like Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and others because of its status as a UNGA host.
This is not the first time Palestinian leaders have been denied a visa, especially in the case of Palestine. The US government defended its decision by citing “security threats,” and Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), was also prohibited from visiting the UN in 1988.
The Trump administration is now praising the Palestinian Authority (PA) for “not meeting their commitments and… undermining the prospects for peace,” making the claim that the decision reflects US “national security interests.”
The official US justification for the PA’s failure to denounce “terrorism,” including the attacks of October 7, 2023, is illogical. The Palestinian leadership has consistently condemned “terrorism,” including the attacks, under President Mahmoud Abbas, and has gone even further by backing the French-Saudi statement calling for Hamas’s disarmament.
The 1993 Oslo Accords, signed by Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, with US President Bill Clinton as the guest of honor, established the PA in accordance with the agreement. The PA continued to support any US-led peace initiative in the years that followed, including a sizable sum of money.
It is absurd to accuse the PA of “undermining the prospects for peace” in this regard. It is obvious that the visa applications were denied elsewhere.
Leaders of several Western nations have declared their intentions to recognize Palestine at the UNGA this month, which coincides with the Trump administration’s decision. By the end of September, France, Canada, the UK, Australia, Portugal, and Malta are expected to join the 147 UN member states that have already granted Palestinian statehood.
These nations have been under constant pressure from the Trump administration to abandon their plans. Washington is likely trying to prevent the Palestinians from having a chance to celebrate this moment and have a platform to voice their opposition to the ongoing atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza and the occupied West Bank because that may not work.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, will be welcomed warmly in the US, in contrast. Netanyahu has been the most frequently a guest at the White House since Trump’s inauguration, and he will also be present at the UNGA, despite the International Criminal Court (ICC) is issuing a warrant for his arrest. Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, was reportedly denied a visa by the US government in 2013 because of his ICC arrest warrant.
The US has participated in Israeli efforts to silence Palestinian journalists, but it has also denied them a platform at the UN.
Five days after Israel bombed Gaza’s Naser Hospital, killing 22 people, including five Palestinian journalists, the US made the decision to refuse visas to Palestinian diplomats. Since the start of the war, Israel has killed 24 journalists. The attack was not condemned by the Trump administration. The State Department reportedly supported the Israeli army’s claim that four Al Jazeera journalists were “part of Hamas” two weeks prior to the attack and the killing of four of their targets.
This is in response to the US government’s inaction in a number of other Israeli-related journalists killings, including those committed by senior American-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh in May of that year and my friend and colleague Nazeh Darwazeh, who was killed in 2003 while working for The Associated Press.
The US is unwaveringly committed to supporting Israel in denying Palestinians a platform and voice in front of the world to speak out and support their claim to statehood.
The visa denial is “a perfect expression of decades of US policy toward the Palestinians: we’ll punish you for violence, but we’ll punish you for non-violence,” according to Matt Duss, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC.
Who is it if even a resolute Palestinian body that has abandoned armed struggle is not permitted to speak? Who is authorized to represent Palestine?
The Israeli occupiers’ attempts to eject Palestinians from their homeland and void Palestinian sovereignty appear to be supported by the US at this time. Even if you are the only superpower on Earth, you can’t wish away an entire population from its surface.
