This past week, Trump’s State Department denied visas for the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority (PLO and PA) which are planning to attend the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York City. This is trampling on international law and United Nations’ rules. It will prevent the PA's president, Mahmoud Abbas, from addressing the gathering, as he has in the past.¹

This outrageous move from Trump comes amidst Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. And it comes at a moment when the issue of the future of the Palestinian people, and the crimes of Israel, will feature prominently on the General Assembly’s agenda. France, Canada, and perhaps Britain are planning to formally recognize a Palestinian state for the first time during the Assembly. 

While this move is largely symbolic, it is a way for these imperialists to criticize Israel's open genocide against the Palestinian people, and to argue for a "two state solution." In actual fact, this "two state solution" would amount to a Palestinian puppet state surrounded and dominated by Israel. But even that is too much for the fascists in Israel—and their current backers, the fascists in the U.S. 

This move by the Trump regime is aimed at undercutting any discussion of a Palestinian state, and criticism of or sanctions against Israel. Secretary of State Marco Rubio even demanded that—as the New York Times described it—“the Palestinian Authority, which governs the Israeli-occupied West Bank, must end appeals to legal institutions, including the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, and stop pushing countries to recognize a ‘conjectural Palestinian state.’” In other words, stop advocating for the Palestinian people!

Today, the PLO and PA hold the status of an "observer state" at the UN. And even though the main UN headquarters is in New York City, the U.S. has no right to prevent foreign officials—especially those with an official UN status—from visiting UN headquarters, attending meetings, etc.

Denying visas to the PLO and PA not only flies in the face of UN rules, it’s also an open declaration that the fascist Trump regime is hell-bent on dictating and setting terms for the whole world.

As the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian analyzed in his social media message @BobAvakianOfficial REVOLUTION #114:

Trump fascism is a regime that openly and aggressively strips away basic rights and blatantly declares that there is no rule of law and due process of law other than what it dictates, and that raw destructive power is what must rule in the international arena, without even the pretense of adherence to international law or concern about the sovereignty, or even the right to exist, of less powerful peoples and countries.