Israel Wants U.S. To Shut Down Palestinian Office In Washington
A Palestinian flag waves in the breeze. Image by flickr
By Nathan Guttman September 28, 2017
Seeking retaliation after the Wednesday vote by the [Interpol]](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-interpol/interpol-approves-membership-for-state-of-palestine-over-israeli-objections-idUSKCN1C20UV) to admit the Palestinians as a full member state, the Israeli government is asking the United States to shut down offices of the Palestinian delegation in Washington.
According to reports in Israel, the idea was raised in a meeting of Israeli officials with President Trump’s Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt and the ambassador to Tel Aviv David Friedman. The Israelis reported that they had raised the issue with members of Congress, who could move forward legislation requiring the closing of the office.
The Palestinian delegation in Washington is defined as the General Delegation of the PLO, a lower diplomatic status than a full embassy.
“Why is Netanyahu doing this? What does the Interpol have to do with the Palestinian office in Washington?” asked Husam Zolmot, head of the PLO delegation to Washington in response to the Israeli demand. Zolmot told the Forward the request is “ridiculous and childish” and argued that asking for the shuttering of the PLO office is Netanyahu’s way “to preempt any possibility of Donald Trump reaching the ultimate deal.”
Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
