US again denies Palestinian leader Abbas visa to attend UN assembly

The United States has denied Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas an entry visa to attend the UN General Assembly in New York next week, a source familiar with the case said Wednesday.

In a separate statement that did not mention Abbas by name, the State Department said it would deny visas to members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and officials with the Palestinian Authority (PA), “as a consequence of their failure to reform, contrary to their commitments to the United States, and their ongoing activities that undermine the prospects for peace.”

A source familiar with the matter confirmed to AFP that the Palestinian Authority president, Abbas, was covered by the measure.

The Trump administration took the same step last year, forcing the Palestinian leader, a regular at the UN General Assembly, to address the body of global leadership by video.

In its statement Wednesday, the State Department said that the PLO and PA had “once again, failed to live up to their commitments.”

“This includes initiating and supporting actions at international organisations that undermine and contradict prior commitments,” the department also said.

Washington also accused the organisations of “taking actions to internationalise the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict including through the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ), seeking to bypass negotiations through seeking unilateral recognition, and continuing to pay stipends to terrorists and to glorify acts of terrorism and terrorists in public pronouncements and school textbooks.”

The move puts the United States at odds with numerous countries, including France, that recognised a Palestinian state at the United Nations last year.

A total of 142 UN member states endorsed it following the conference on a two-state solution co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia.

The decision comes as violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians has escalated in recent months in the West Bank.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and violence there has surged since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

According to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data, Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,109 Palestinians in the West Bank — fighters and civilians — since October 7, 2023, when a Hamas-led attack killed more than 1,200 people.

The ensuing Israeli military campaign has waged relentless strikes on Gaza that have killed more than 73,700 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The international community has expressed concern over the violence, but the United States has remained largely quiet on the issue, saying only that the US government opposes any annexation of Palestinian territory.

AFP