BICOM

The Palestinian Authority (PA) have frozen links with the US Consulate in Jerusalem in protest at the State Department’s refusal to renew the certification for the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s (PLO) office in Washington DC.

Majdi al-Khalidi, a senior adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, told the Jerusalem Post that communications with the US Consulate in Jerusalem and meetings between American and Palestinian officials are currently frozen because of the State Department’s decision regarding the PLO office in Washington. The freeze includes contact with Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt. Earlier this week Saeb Erekat said the PA would suspend bilateral relations if the Trump administration ordered the PLO to close its office, jeopardising US President Donald Trump’s upcoming peace plan.

Kan Radio News reported this morning that a high-ranking official in the State Department said that the US would like the PLO offices to remain open, but clarified that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would not be able to permit them to continue to operate if Palestinian leaders continued to urge the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute Israeli officials for war crimes. US law obliges Tillerson to notify Congress if the Palestinians are encouraging the ICC to prosecute Israel for alleged war crimes.

In his speech to the UN General Assembly in September, Abbas said: “We have called on the International Criminal Court to open an investigation and to prosecute Israeli officials for their involvement in settlement activities and aggressions against our people, and we will continue to pursue our accessions to international conventions, protocols and organizations, as Palestine has acquired observer state status in accordance with UN General Assembly resolution 67/19 of 2012”.