Washington (United States) (AFP) – The United States has denied Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas an entry visa to attend the UN General Assembly in New York next week, a source familiar with the case said Wednesday.
In a separate statement that did not mention Abbas by name, the State Department say it would deny visas to members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and officials with the Palestinian Authority (PA), "as a consequence of their failure to reform, contrary to their commitments to the United States, and their ongoing activities that undermine the prospects for peace."
A source familiar with the matter confirmed to AFP that the Palestinian Authority president, Abbas, was covered by the measure.
The Trump administration took the same step last year, forcing the Palestinian leader, a regular at the UN General Assembly, to address the body of global leadership by video.
In its statement Wednesday, the State Department said that the PLO and PA had "once again, failed to live up to their commitments."
"This includes initiating and supporting actions at international organizations that undermine and contradict prior commitments," the department also said.
Washington also accused the organizations of "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."
The move puts the United States at odds with numerous countries, including France, that recognized a Palestinian state at the United Nations last year.
A total of 142 UN member states endorsed it following the conference on a two-state solution co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia.
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Yeah me too. But wishing for the death makes you no better than the colonisers. We must be kind to each other if we want a world of peace.
The colonized wishing for the deaths of their colonizers, and those who support the colonized against their colonizers, are far better than colonizers. Peace can only happen through successful waging of class struggle, which includes struggles for national liberation and sovereignty.
Peace can only happen if we are kind to each other. A truly communist nation could still carry out a genocide if the population wanted to, no?
Of course it's natural to wish for the death of your oppressors but where does it end? Yes definitely fight back, but please keep your humanity.
Advocating kindness does not get us one step closer to communism, though. Human behaviors and mindsets are a product of the material conditions we live in, we need to address the material conditions to remake humanity.
I would argue it does. We live in a world consumed by hatred. It has been created on purpose by big tech companies, media conglomerates and their billionaire owners. It's so bad that some people are convinced that helping each other is wrong.
Advocating kindess is fighting back against oppression. Only love can conquer hate. I agree that human behaviour depends on material conditions and we can all have better conditions if we work together. In order to work together, kindness must be present.
That kindness comes from creating a better world and addressing that materially. You can win some ground ideologically, but we still need to change the world, and that part is primary.