US government to close PLO’s mission in Washington in latest blow to Palestinians
The US State Department yesterday said that it was ordering the Washington mission of the Palestine Liberation Organisation to be closed, in a move the Palestinians denounced as a “dangerous escalation”.
“We have permitted the PLO office to conduct operations that support the objective of achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between Israelis and the Palestinians since the expiration of a previous waiver in November 2017,” said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.
“However, the PLO has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel.”
The decision was another play from US President Donald Trump aimed at pressuring the Palestinians to negotiate with him and his Middle East advisers on a peace plan that the American leader has called the “ultimate deal”.
But the Palestinians have cut all contacts with Washington over decisions made by Mr Trump that they say favour Israel.
They include the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, announced in December, and recognising the city as Israel’s capital.
The State Department accused the Palestinian leadership of condemning “a US peace plan they have not yet seen and refused to engage with the US government with respect to peace efforts and otherwise”.
The Palestinians have said they would reject any US peace proposal after the embassy move. They seek East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, as the capital of any future Palestinian state.
Palestinian officials criticised the decision as another betrayal that effectively ended Washington’s role as an impartial mediator in the decades-long conflict.
Officials in Ramallah said the decision came after they stepped up their campaign against Israel at the International Criminal Court, where they have sought a war crimes investigations into the Israelis.
“We have been notified by a US official of their decision to close the Palestinian mission to the US,” PLO secretary general Saeb Erekat said.
“This is another affirmation
of the Trump administration’s policy to collectively punish the Palestinian people, including by cutting financial support for humanitarian services including health and education.”
US National Security Adviser John Bolton yesterday called the ICC “illegitimate” and “outright dangerous” to the US, Israel and other allies.
“If the court comes after us, Israel or other US allies, we will not sit quietly,” Mr Bolton said.
The PLO was considered a terrorist organisation by the US and Israel until 1991.
But since the Oslo Accords, signed in 1993 and sealed with a White House lawn handshake between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, it has served as the Palestinian representation at the negotiating table in any peace talks.
Under US law adopted by Congress in 1980s, the PLO mission was barred from establishing an office in Washington. Former President Bill Clinton waived that law in 1994, allowing the office to open with a six-month renewal period signed off by the sitting US president.
In a status upgrade in 2011, former president Barack Obama allowed the PLO mission to fly the Palestinian flag over its office on Wisconsin Avenue.
The Trump government had threatened to close the mission in November.
The head of the mission, Husam Zumlot, was recalled in December.
Mr Zumlot said in Ramallah that the decision was taken by the US to “protect Israel from war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel is committing in the occupied Palestinian territories”.
The Palestinians have embarked on what has been called a “diplomatic intifada”, asking the war crimes court to investigate Israel for human rights breaches including the deaths of hundreds of civilians in the 2014 Gaza War and continued illegal settlement building in the West Bank.