The Trump administration has denied visas to the President of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas, and 80 members of the PA government for them to travel to the U.S. next month for the opening session of the UN General Assembly.
The 1947 agreement establishing the UN headquarters requires foreign diplomats to have access to the UN. By denying the visas, Trump recognizes that Abbas, who hasn't faced an election in two decades, doesn't represent any nation. In addition, Abbas refuses to renounce terrorism consistently, something the State Department says is a prerequisite for his entering the U.S.
State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the PA and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) “'must repudiate terrorism' before 'they can be taken seriously as partners for peace.'"
The State Department also accused Abbas and the PLO of contributing to “Hamas’s refusal to release its hostages, and to the breakdown of the Gaza ceasefire talks.”
The Palestinian UN ambassador, Riyad Mansour, issued a statement sounding as if Abbas was going to challenge his denial of a visa by attempting to enter the U.S. anyway.
Mansour said on Friday that "as far as he knew, 'the head of our delegation is President Mahmoud Abbas, and he is coming to represent the state of Palestine and the Palestinian people in that conference.'”
There is no Palestinian state, and as far as representing the Palestinian people, the terrorists in Hamas have as much right to represent them as Abbas. Hamas terrorists are currently cowering in holes in the ground and have RSVP'd apologizing for being unable to attend.
Several European foreign ministers criticized the decision ahead of a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark on Saturday. A U.N. General Assembly “cannot be subject to any restrictions on access,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters.
France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia are each expected to formally recognize a Palestinian state at the assembly, a move the Trump administration has opposed. The state of Palestine is currently recognized by 147 of the U.N.’s 193 member states.
The visa revocations came amid mounting global anger over starvation in Gaza after more than 22 months of war which has seen more than 63,000 people killed, according to health officials in the enclave.
Israel's Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa'ar, expressed his nation's gratitude for the Trump administration's stand.
Thank you @SecRubio for holding the "PLO" and PA accountable for rewarding terrorism, incitement and efforts to use legal warfare against Israel. We thank @POTUS and the Administration for this bold step and for standing by Israel once again. pic.twitter.com/vi2SP7IaWA
— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) August 29, 2025
Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) demonstrated why Democrats have become the home of antisemites.
Why have a State Department bureau on the Middle East if Trump and @SecRubio are taking their orders from Netanyahu? We can save a lot of money by cutting out the middle man. https://t.co/3b9yML7krL
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) August 29, 2025
It's the "Jewish conspiracy" that Israel controls the U.S. government. That Van Hollen will suffer no consequences for his antisemitic comment says a lot about the Democratic Party's drift.
Haaretz, the liberal Israeli daily, calls the ban on Abbas attending the UN session a "dangerous precedent."
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rushed to respond to the decision, expressing its astonishment. In its statement, the office of the Presidency stressed that the move contradicts international law and the 1947 UN Headquarters Agreement, even more so because the State of Palestine holds the status of an observer state in the organization.
Beyond the diplomatic aspect of the ban, the move to block Abbas' participation in the General Assembly constitutes a dangerous precedent that could damn the UN's credibility as an international institution. If the state hosting the UN denies representatives of a recognized people access, it would undermine not only the Palestinian representation in the organization, but its very essence.
There is no such entity called "the State of Palestine." It doesn't exist in international law or in practical terms. The "Palestinian people" have been given "observer status" at the UN, nothing more. It certainly doesn't grant the illegitimate representative of those people a place at any international conference purporting to represent "nations" of the world.
It doesn't matter how many nations "recognize" Palestine. Imagining a Palestinian state does not make it real. As long as the terrorists continue to kill Israelis and claim the "right of return" for Palestinians to occupy Jewish property, there will be no accommodation with any Palestinian political entity.
