- The Trump administration denied visas to Palestinian officials ahead of the UN General Assembly on September 16, 2026.
- The decision blocks Mahmoud Abbas from traveling to New York, though the PLO Observer Mission still has a standing waiver.
- State Department officials said the move extends sanctions under older U.S. peace laws and follows August 2025 action.
The Trump administration on September 16, 2026 denied visas to Palestinian Authority officials and Palestine Liberation Organization members, blocking Mahmoud Abbas from traveling to New York for the UN General Assembly. The move also reaches a high-level Palestinian delegation headed for the meeting next week, while a standing waiver still covers personnel assigned to the PLO Observer Mission at the UN. He is out.
The State Department said the Palestinians had "once again, failed to live up to their commitments," and accused the two bodies 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 department added, "It is in our national interest to impose consequences and hold the PLO and PA accountable for glorifying terrorism". Hard line.
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It went further. "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, the United States will extend sanctions that deny visas to PLO members and PA officials". That makes the move a continuation, not a one-off. This is the second year in a row the administration has shut the door on Abbas and other Palestinian officials before the annual gathering. In August 2025, the department said Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided not to issue visas to Palestinian officials to hold them "accountable for not complying with their commitments and for undermining the prospects for peace". The same notice demanded that the PLO and PA "consistently repudiate terrorism," including the Hamas-led attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and "end incitement to terrorism in education". Again.
The Palestinian foreign ministry called the decision "an unjustified measure" that runs counter to rebuilding trust and achieving peace and stability. Israel's government backed the move. Palestinian diplomats already accredited to the United Nations can still represent the Palestinians at the session, so the delegation keeps a presence even as Abbas stays home. The ban narrows the roster, not the seat.
The observer mission keeps its own waiver
The waiver applies only to personnel assigned to the PLO Observer Mission to the United Nations. It does not cover Abbas. He was scheduled to address the 81st session of the UN General Assembly on Sept. 24. Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, said the United Nations had not received official notification from the U.S. in August 2026 reporting about the possible denial. Not yet.
The decision also lands on top of an earlier warning from Washington. In August 2025, the department said Rubio had chosen not to issue visas before that year's General Assembly, and it framed the move as a response to Palestinian conduct it said undermined peace. The newer action follows the same path. It narrows access, but not entirely.
The legal footing is older than either visa fight. The State Department's notice to Congress cited the PLO Commitments Compliance Act of 1989 and the Middle East Peace Commitments Act of 2002. Those statutes sit behind the sanctions the department says it is extending, and they connect this round of visa denials to a longer U.S. fight over Palestinian diplomacy. The paper trail runs back years.
