How silencing dynamics work in the international arena

For the second consecutive year Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was denied a visa to travel to the US to attend the UN General Assembly. According to the US State Department, sanctions were extended due to “their failure to reform, contrary to their commitments to the United States, and their ongoing activities that undermine the prospects for peace.” If the PA cannot be faulted on one thing, it is its unfortunate commitment to international impositions and the two-state diplomacy. As Abbas has discovered, even blind adherence to the two-state is not enough to guarantee visibility in the international arena.

The EU opposed the US decision, as did the UN. In a brief statement, EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Anouar el Anouni urged the US to reconsider its decision “in light of its existing headquarters agreements with the UN and its obligations as host state.” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the other hand expressed concern about how the US decision would affect the State of Palestine’s ability “to participate fully in the work of the United Nations.”

Both statements are replete with discrepancies. As the EU has shown on several occasions, particularly when it comes to Israel, genocide and sanctions, the lesser road is much cherished. It is easier to ask the US to reconsider its decision regarding Abbas’s attendance; a formality does not generate any political repercussions. It does not create a rift with the US, although the EU likes to pretend there is one where President Donald Trump is concerned. However, the EU’s refusal to directly target Israel only spells complicity with both settler-colonialism and the US.

Whether Abbas attends or delivers his address virtually makes no difference to the EU’s diplomatic relations with the US, Israel or Palestine. The complicity remains, while Palestine is forced into acquiescence as always.

Guterres, on the other hand, is purportedly concerned on how Palestine can fully participate in the UN’s work if visas are denied to its representatives. One reminder – the UN does not need Palestine’s presence to do the right thing and embark upon a decolonial process in Palestine. All it needs is international law. Palestinian representation at the UN has not stopped colonialism because the UN depends upon international law violations to survive. The PA depends upon colonialism for its existence; if were truly autonomous, it would not allow Palestinians to become fodder for Israel’s jails. The UN needs Palestinian diplomatic  representation only to ensure that the Palestinian population is not represented in any way other than through statistical data.

According to news reports, Abbas’s statement was going to focus on international recognition of a Palestinian state and building momentum for the defunct two-state hypothesis, as well as focus on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, settlement expansion and pogroms in the occupied West Bank.

Nothing the UN hasn’t heard before, or anyone with the slightest interest in Palestine for that matter. The US is pointedly excluding Palestinians from international participation, but the PA’s existence is perpetually excluding Palestinians from authentic representation.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.