Marco Rubio says he’s blocking Palestinians from coming to UN meeting where statehood is on the table

JTA -Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Friday that he is “denying and revoking” the visas of Palestinian officials ahead of the United Nations General Assembly next month.

The unprecedented move will prevent members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) from attending the General Debate where several countries, including Australia, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom, have announced plans to recognise Palestinian statehood.

“The Trump Administration has been clear: it is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” Rubio said in a statement.

The move represents a major break with precedent. The United States typically allows foreign leaders to attend UN meetings even if they are on the outs with the US government. Iranian officials and Russian officials have regularly attended meetings at the UN, for example.

But the Trump administration has shown unusual willingness to use its visa-granting authority to advance an ideological agenda, including by revoking the visas of students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests at their universities.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas said the revocation “stands in clear contradiction to international law” in a statement urging the United States to reconsider the move. Abbas was recommended to be included in the ban, according to an internal State Department memo obtained by the New York Post.

Abbas was also expected to attend a high-level meeting on 22 Septembers co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia about brokering a two-state solution.

Abbas, 89, is widely seen as essential to developing any plan for postwar governance in Gaza. He has shown willingness to have PA security forces cooperate with the Israeli security forces and, in June, condemned Hamas’s 7 October 2023, attack on Israel for the first time.

In his statement, Rubio called on the PA to “end its attempts to bypass negotiations through international lawfare campaigns, including appeals to the ICC and ICJ, and efforts to secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state.”

The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, told reporters that he was assessing how the move would apply to his delegation, adding that they would “respond accordingly”.

Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, applauded the move. Israel opposes any efforts to create a Palestinian state.

“Thank you @SecRubio for holding the ‘PLO’ and PA accountable for rewarding terrorism, incitement and efforts to use legal warfare against Israel,” he tweeted. “We thank @POTUS and the Administration for this bold step and for standing by Israel once again.”

Rubio’s move, announced on the Friday of Labor Day weekend, did not immediately ignite widespread reactions from Jewish groups. But it drew strong condemnation from Hadar Susskind, the president and CEO of New Jewish Narrative, a progressive Zionist organisation.

“The Trump administration is doing more than just shooting itself in the foot. It is playing into the hands of Hamas,” said Susskind in a statement. “A better future for Israelis and Palestinians depends on the establishment of a Palestinian state. We want that state to be led by political factions that recognise Israel. That’s who governs the Palestinian Authority. That’s who the Trump administration is denying entry to.”