US hits Palestinian Authority officials with visa ban over statehood recognition

Israel’s FM Gideon Saar welcomed new US sanctions, calling the move a display of “moral clarity”

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The United States said Thursday it would deny visas to Palestinian Authority officials, as US allies move to recognize Palestinian statehood.

The sanctions come after several states, including France and Canada, announced they would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, infuriating Israel and the United States.

The US visa denials could complicate attendance at the meeting by Palestinian leaders.

France and Saudi Arabia sponsored this week a UN conference designed to resurrect the decades-old idea of a two-state solution, with the argument that only Israeli and Palestinian states co-existing side by side can bring peace to the Middle East.

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The United States, which rejects any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, called the conference an insult to people killed in the October 7, 2023 Hamas surprise attack that triggered the ongoing Israeli military operation throughout Gaza.

The State Department did not specify who was being targeted in this new action, only saying it would deny visas to "members" of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and "officials" from the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The organizations are "taking actions to internationalize its conflict with Israel such as through the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ)," the State Department said in a statement.

It also accused the groups of "continuing to support terrorism including incitement and glorification of violence," and of "providing payments and benefits in support of terrorism to Palestinian terrorists and their families."

The United States in June announced sanctions against four judges at the ICC, saying their indictment of Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza was politically oriented.

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar welcomed the new US sanctions, saying the gesture displayed "moral clarity."

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmud Abbas has been widely recognized for years as a key partner in efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The PA is a civilian ruling authority in areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where about three million Palestinians live -- as well as around half a million Israelis occupying settlements considered illegal under international law. Hamas governs the Gaza Strip.

The PLO is an umbrella grouping of Palestinian organizations but does not include Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007. Founded in 1964, it was led for decades by Yasser Arafat.

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Arab and Western countries want the currently weak Palestinian Authority to have some role in governing Gaza once the war ends.

President Donald Trump is an unconditional supporter of Israel and has met at the White House three times with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since returning to power in January, even as Trump seeks an elusive ceasefire in Gaza.

The United States has criticized the Palestinian Authority as ineffective and corrupt.

Saar echoed the State Department, accusing the Palestinian Authority of paying "terrorists" and their families for attacks against Israeli targets and of inciting people against Israel in schools, textbooks, mosques, and Palestinian media.

"This important action by President Trump and his administration also exposes the moral distortion of certain countries that rushed to recognize a virtual Palestinian state while turning a blind eye to the PA's support for terrorism and incitement," Saar wrote on X.