The State Department said Tuesday that it rejects Sen. Ted Cruz’s call to close the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Washington office, and said doing so would disrupt the U.S.-Palestinian “partnership” that is working on a peace agreement.
“We believe closing the PLO office would be detrimental to our ongoing efforts to calm current tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, advance a two-state solution, and strengthen the U.S.-Palestinian partnership,” State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters.
“We believe the PLO is an important partner, and that as the official representative body of the Palestinian people before the international community, the PLO has a role to play in our efforts to advance a two-state solution,” she added.
When asked more bluntly whether State would write back to Cruz to say it opposes his idea, Trudeau confirmed that is the case. “We believe that the PLO has a valid place we’d like to see, that office, and we’d oppose this, yes,” she said.
Cruz, R-Texas, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and a few dozen other members of Congress said the PLO is behind acts of terrorism against Israel. They also said the president has waived the Anti-Terrorism Act each year since 1994 to allow the PLO to maintain an office in the nation’s capital.
“Closing the PLO office in Washington, D.C. would send a clear statement that the kind of incitement to violence perpetrated by the PLO and its leaders will not be tolerated,” they wrote.
Trudeau stressed that part of the U.S. government’s dialogue with the PLO involves telling the group to stop violence against Israel, although the Obama administration has also said it sends similar messages to Israel.
“We remain deeply concerned about ongoing violence in Israel, Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza,” she said. “We completely reject the notion that there is any justification for violence against innocent civilians.”
“We continue to stress the importance to Palestinian leadership of strongly opposing violence in all forms, and we’ve said affirmative steps are needed to calm tensions and reduce violence,” she added.
