President Donald Trump’s administration slapped sanctions on the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for seeking statehood outside of a formal agreement with Israel, per U.S. law.
It has been American policy for decades, enshrined in the Middle East Peace Commitments Act and other laws, that Palestinians must honor agreements to negotiate with Israel, and not pursue unilateral actions.
However, the Palestinian Authority has repeatedly broken its agreements by trying to isolate Israel through international institutions, and by seeking unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood through those same institutions.
This week and last week, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada all announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September in New York City.
President Trump has called that recognition a “reward for terror,” and has threatened to retaliate by punishing Canada in trade negotiations. Now, his administration is sanctioning the Palestinians as well.
A State Department press release said:
The State Department has reported to Congress that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Palestinian Authority (PA) are not in compliance with their commitments under the PLO Commitments Compliance Act of 1989 (PLOCCA) and the Middle East Peace Commitments Act of 2002 (MEPCA), including by initiating and supporting actions at international organizations that undermine and contradict prior commitments in support of Security Council Resolution 242 and 338, taking actions to internationalize its conflict with Israel such as through the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ), continuing to support terrorism including incitement and glorification of violence (especially in textbooks), and providing payments and benefits in support of terrorism to Palestinian terrorists and their families. The United States is imposing sanctions that deny visas to PLO members and PA officials in accordance with section 604(a)(1) of the MEPCA. It is in our national security interests to impose consequences and hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments and undermining the prospects for peace.
The result of barring visas to Palestinian officials is that they will not be able to attend the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, where the declaration of statehood was expected.
The Trump administration has invoked these laws before to sanction the Palestinians. In 2018, the first Trump administration closed the PLO’s offices in Washington for taking Israel to the ICC at The Hague.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
