At the end of August, the Trump administration blocked Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and 80 other Palestinian officials from attending the UN general assembly meeting in New York, which runs between September 9 and 23. The US president’s decision to revoke the Palestinian officials’ US visas comes as various European governments prepare to formally recognise the state of Palestine at the general assembly. Supporters of Palestinian statehood are proposing a central role for Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) in Gaza’s future government.
Historically, the US has also supported the PA. The Oslo accords, which created the PA in the first place, were signed at the White House in 1993. US president Bill Clinton famously hosted Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and the chair of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Yasser Arafat.
