Close it down, now.
Congress Members Move to Shut Down PLO Office in U.S.
Proposed US law would shutter PLO D.C. offices unless President can make certain assurances.
Photo Credit: Facebook
For nearly 30 years there has been a U.S. federal law that prohibits the Palestinian Liberation Organization from maintaining an office in Washington, D.C. And for more than 20 years, in the wake of the Oslo Accords, the PLO office has been open. That is because American lawmakers assumed the Oslo Accords meant the PLO was no longer a terrorist organization.
On Wednesday, Feb. 10, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and more than a dozen members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation to rectify that misunderstanding.
The original law that required the shuttering of the PLO office, the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987, allows that law to be circumvented by a mere waiver issued by the President of the United States.
The proposed law, however, requires that the President make affirmative representations that the PLO is not doing certain things – such as engaging in the promotion of terrorism or in attempting to take certain action it is prohibited from taking under the Oslo Accords. For example, the parties to that agreement are not permitted to “initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank” until the “permanent status negotiations” are concluded.
