Get you up to speed: US extends visa ban on Palestinian officials before UN General Assembly
The United States Department of State is extending visa sanctions on Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas, which prevents them from attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York for the second consecutive year. The State Department cited the PA’s failure to reform and ongoing activities that undermine peace as reasons for the sanctions.
The visa sanctions will prevent Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other officials from participating in the upcoming UN General Assembly. The PA mission will retain a waiver under the UN Headquarters Agreement, which permits regular staff to continue their roles despite the travel bans on individual officials.
The United States Department of State has reiterated its visa sanctions on Palestinian Authority officials, citing non-compliance with commitments and actions undermining peace efforts. Palestinian officials and UN human rights experts have condemned the ban, claiming it violates US obligations to facilitate access for individuals invited by the UN.
What remains unclear — It is not specified how the US plans to address criticisms regarding the unequal travel restrictions between Palestinian officials and Israeli leaders.
US extends visa ban on Palestinian officials ahead of UN General Assembly
News|Israel-Palestine conflictUS extends visa ban on Palestinian officials before UN General Assembly
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is among those barred for the second year in a row.
Published On 17 Sep 202617 Sep 2026
Published On 17 Sep 202617 Sep 2026The United States Department of State has announced it will extend visa sanctions on officials of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), preventing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from travelling to New York ahead of his address to the United Nations General Assembly next week for the second year in a row.
“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,” the State Department said in a statement.
The State Department accused the PA of violating US law by pursuing international recognition of Palestinian statehood outside direct negotiations, taking its dispute with Israel to international courts and providing payments to people the US and Israel label as convicted attackers and their families.
It added that the PA mission to the UN would keep a waiver under the UN Headquarters Agreement, which allows its regular staff to continue working even as individual officials are barred from entering the US.
Abbas’s speech this year had been expected to press for international recognition of Palestinian statehood and renewed momentum behind a two-state solution, following a wave of recognitions this month by the United Kingdom, France, Canada and other Western governments, as well as to draw attention to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the rapid expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and settler pogroms across the occupied West Bank.
No Israeli officials face equivalent US travel restrictions, despite an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
Last year’s ban drew criticism from Palestinian officials and UN human rights experts, who said the visa bans breach the US’s obligation to allow individuals invited by the UN to travel to its New York headquarters, and have argued that singling out Palestinian representatives while shielding Israeli leaders undermines Washington’s stated commitment to a negotiated peace.