American Palestinians open homes to PLO delegation amid threat to close US office

AMMAN: Palestinian Americans have offered to open their homes to the Palestinian delegation in Washington if the US government follows through on its threat to close the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) mission.

A meeting of the Palestinian community in New Jersey turned into a public vote of confidence in the work of the delegation, those attending told Arab News.

Khader El-Yateem, pastor of the Salam Arabic Lutheran Church and a Palestinian community leader in Brooklyn, made the accommodation offer to Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestinian delegation in the US.

“We told Ambassador Zomlot that the homes of half a million Palestinian Americans and many others will be open to him and his staff if the US decides to permanently close the PLO mission in Washington, D.C.,” El-Yateem told Arab News.

Despite the closure threat, the PLO office in Washington, D.C. was functioning normally on Monday morning. Under US law, for the office to operate the Secretary of State must certify every six months that the PLO has complied with conditions imposed by Congress. The latest six-month period finished last Thursday.

The State Department said permission was not renewed because of a speech by President Mahmoud Abbas at the UN General Assembly in September, in which he suggested taking the issue of Israeli settlements to the International Criminal Court. The threat of closure is also aimed at persuading the Palestinians to enter talks with Israel within 90 days.

“This is a typical example of the blackmail and extortion that the US-Israeli alliance has exercised against the Palestinians since the beginning of the so-called ‘peace process’ over a quarter of a century ago,” Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, told Arab News.

Professor Khalidi called on Palestinians to depart from the “endless hamster wheel” and admit that the temporary solutions of the Oslo Accords had failed. “The Palestinians should treat the US as what it is, a dishonest broker that is the closest ally of Israel. They should only agree to enter negotiations under neutral international auspices, and on the basis of all relevant UN resolutions, going back to those of 1947 and 1948,” he said.

In Palestine, Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO executive committee, said: “Instead of holding Israel liable for its persistent violations of international law and conventions, the US administration and Congress are threatening to punish the Palestinian people because of statements made by President Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations, and by other leaders, pertaining to ICC accountability for Israel and for its war crimes in Palestine.

“It is ironic that the US is taking steps to punish the victim and not the perpetrator of the crime.”

The PLO continued to be placed on probation and unfairly judged while Israel was given preferential treatment and license to act with impunity, Ashrawi said. “If President Donald Trump decides not to renew the waiver after 90 days, the US will embolden Israel even further and provide it with greater cover for its lack of compliance and unilateral actions.”