Trump administration denies visas for Palestinian delegation to attend UN General Assembly for second year

The Trump administration on Wednesday denied visas to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in New York for the second time in more than a year.

The State Department accused the PLO and the PA of failing their commitments as established in the PLO Commitments Compliance Act of 1989 and the Middle East Peace Commitments Act of 2002.

The alleged failures include “taking actions to internationalize 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,” State officials said in a statement .

The department said it will continue to provide waivers to the delegation, as part of the U.N. Headquarters Agreement. State officials concluded that denying the visas was “in our national interest to impose consequences and hold the PLO and PA accountable for glorifying terrorism

Officials with the PA’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates rejected the department’s claim that any recourse through the U.N., the ICC and the ICJ undermined peace efforts, rather that it was the PA’s legitimate right “and a peaceful, legal means to protect the Palestinian people and their rights,” according to a statement .

“The Ministry called upon the US administration to reconsider this decision, halt the policy of sanctions and restrictions, and engage in a direct, serious Palestinian-US dialogue to address any points of contention,” the statement reads. “It also urged the resumption of bilateral relations based on mutual respect and support for the implementation of the New York Declaration, relevant UN resolutions, and the peace plan—steps that would lead to ending the occupation and realizing an independent, sovereign State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

Visas were previously revoked in August 2025, when the State Department urged Palestinian leaders to condemn the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 Israelis and preceded the subsequent war carried out in the Gaza Strip. Israeli attacks killed more than 70,000 Palestinians and have destroyed much of Gaza’s infrastructure.

Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement last October, but strikes deployed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza as recently as Wednesday have displaced families while rescuers search for survivors in the rubble .

The department previously implored these groups to end attempts to have territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip be recognized as a sovereign state.

President Trump’s Gaza Board of Peace has sought to have Israel withdraw from Gaza and Hamas hand over its weapons as part of a 15-point peace plan to eventually rehabilitate the territory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the disarmament plan and objected to any establishment of a Palestinian state.