The US has taken yet another step in its long-standing complicity in the oppression of the Palestinian people. Washington has suspended the issuance of visas to Palestinian passport holders seeking to enter the country for medical treatment, higher education and business opportunities. This policy comes on the heels of the revocation of visas for 80 Palestinian officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas, effectively barring them from attending this month’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session in New York.
At first glance, this might appear to be a bureaucratic decision, but the implications are far deeper and more troubling. The United States is not a neutral actor in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is Israel’s biggest benefactor, supplying it with billions of dollars in military aid every year and shielding it diplomatically from accountability.
American-made weapons, funded by US taxpayers, have been central to Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza, a campaign that has left entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble and thousands of civilians dead or displaced.
To deny Palestinians visas, particularly those seeking urgent medical care, is to wash America’s hands of a humanitarian catastrophe that it has helped to create. It is not simply callous; it is a form of dehumanisation. Palestinian children now make up the largest group of child amputees in the world, a grim statistic that speaks volumes about the scale of Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Many of these children require specialised medical treatment that is unavailable in Gaza due to the ongoing blockade and destruction of hospitals. By closing its doors to these young victims, the US is condemning them to lives of unnecessary suffering and doing so with full knowledge that many of the bombs, missiles and artillery shells responsible for their injuries bear a “Made in USA” stamp.
This policy is not occurring in a vacuum. It reflects the immense influence of pro-Israel lobbying groups, most notably the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). AIPAC and similar organisations wield considerable power over US politicians and policymakers, ensuring that American foreign policy consistently aligns with Israel’s interests, even when this contradicts American values or international law. In this context, the visa ban can be seen as yet another attempt to appease Israel, which has long sought to delegitimise Palestinian political representation on the global stage.
Indeed, Israel has perfected a tactic of labelling any recognition of Palestinian statehood as antisemitic, a rhetorical manoeuvre designed to silence critics and justify its own actions. When countries move to recognise Palestine or condemn Israeli policies, they are often met with fierce backlash and accusations of bias. The United States, deeply enmeshed in this dynamic, appears to be pre-emptively silencing Palestinians before they can even speak. By revoking visas from Palestinian officials, Washington is effectively censoring them, denying them a platform at the world’s most prominent diplomatic gathering.
The symbolism of this act cannot be overstated. The UN General Assembly is one of the few arenas where Palestinians have been able to voice their aspirations for self-determination and to seek international support. To bar their representatives from attending is to send a clear message: their voices do not matter, their grievances will not be heard and their future will be decided without them. It is an attempt to erase Palestinians from the political map, reducing them to a population to be managed rather than a people with legitimate national rights.
Moreover, the visa ban exposes a glaring contradiction at the heart of US policy. While Washington refuses to recognise a Palestinian state, it simultaneously supports Israel’s expansionist policies and military aggression. It is funding a war that would not be possible without American weapons and dollars, yet it refuses to provide refuge or even temporary visas to those fleeing the very violence it sustains. This is not merely hypocrisy; it is cruelty codified into policy.
This decision also has domestic ramifications within the US. It reveals the extent to which American policymaking has been captured by narrow special interests rather than guided by principles of justice and human rights. Ordinary Americans, many of whom oppose endless wars and foreign entanglements, are effectively sidelined in favour of powerful lobbies that prioritise Israel’s agenda above all else. The result is a foreign policy that perpetuates conflict abroad and corrodes democracy at home.
The suspension of visas for Palestinians should alarm anyone who believes in human dignity and international law. It represents a dangerous escalation in America’s already lopsided role in the conflict, moving from active enabler of Israeli aggression to direct suppressor of Palestinian voices. If the US truly cared about peace, it would be facilitating dialogue at the UN, not silencing one side through bureaucratic fiat.
In the end, this policy lays bare the stark reality: Palestinians are not merely victims of Israeli occupation but also of American complicity. Until Washington confronts its own role in perpetuating this cycle of violence and dispossession, no amount of rhetoric about democracy or human rights will ring true. Denying visas to the wounded, the educated and the hopeful is not just bad policy; it is a moral failure of historic proportions.
Oman al Yahyai
A multilingual writer and media professional based in Paris. She specialises in human rights and immigration
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