The State Department announced Wednesday that it would continue to deny visas to Palestinian officials because of actions taken by their governing and political groups that “internationalize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” including trying to bring cases to international tribunals.
The denial of visas would keep Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, from attending the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York. The main part of that conclave starts next week.
This marks the second year in a row that the Trump administration has prevented Abbas from attending. In August 2025, weeks before the United Nations meeting that year, the State Department said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had decided not to issue visas to Palestinian officials in order to hold them “accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace.”
The UN Vote
The UN General Assembly is set to vote Thursday on a draft resolution to allow Abbas to address the gathering remotely, according to two officials familiar with the planned vote. A copy of the draft resolution obtained by The Times expresses regret that the United States denied visas to Palestinian officials for two years in a row and says “the State of Palestine may submit a prerecorded statement of its President, which will be played in the General Assembly Hall.”
In a statement Thursday, the Foreign Ministry of the Palestinian Authority said the State Department’s decision was “unjustified.”
The Conditions
When it denied visas to Palestinian officials in 2025, the State Department demanded that the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority “consistently repudiate terrorism,” including the Hamas-led attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, and “end incitement to terrorism in education.” It also cited contacts between Palestinian officials and the International Criminal Court.
The Trump administration opposes Palestinians trying to bring cases to that court or the International Court of Justice. About that time, the department also suspended issuing almost all types of visitor visas for anyone holding a Palestinian passport, going well beyond earlier restrictions on visas for Palestinian visitors from Gaza.
The Extension
The State Department said in a statement Wednesday that it was extending the punitive visa measures because the two Palestinian groups had not done enough to change their practices and were “glorifying terrorism.” The department said it had notified Congress of the visa ban extension.
The Bottom Line
The State Department has extended its visa ban on Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian officials, preventing them from attending the UN General Assembly for the second consecutive year. The US says the Palestinian groups have not done enough to repudiate terrorism and are “glorifying terrorism.” The UN General Assembly is set to vote on a resolution allowing Abbas to address the gathering remotely. The Palestinian Authority called the decision “unjustified.”
