The United States of America has threatened to shut down the office of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) in Washington DC this Saturday. The threat to shut down the office came after the leaders of PLO made statements against Israel and pushed for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to carry out investigations against the country. USA believes that PLO cannot pressurise the ICC to carry out investigations like this. They also believe that this action of PLO on American soil might be breaking a legal condition set by the laws of the US when their office was approved. . However, they did not specify which laws were they referring to, nor did they justify how PLO urging the ICC to take action is illegal or unjust.
PLO in return has also set forth a warning for the government of US. They have stated that they will cut ties with the US, if they choose to carry out their threat of closing down their office. This is an escalating situation which none of the stakeholders – and the peace process in the holy lands – can afford.
The US, in this situation, needs to come out of its policy of blinding support towards Israel - which is extremely apparent in this case. They need to realise that PLO is an official organisation, working towards representing the Palestinians under one body and putting forth their views. If the organisation is pushing for action against Israel, the ICC as body has the space, authority and the resources as its disposal to check whether or not their claims are right.
Out-rightly labelling them as an illegal body only shows America’s discomfort with carrying out proceeding against Israel and the policy offering them protection against anyone who openly talks about the atrocities being carried out on the land of Palestine. This time around, the US has gone way too far in its protectionism of Israel over Palestine. Even if they choose to act this way, their legal cover must be strong, rather than giving out vague statements about PLO’s illegal activities. They cannot keep on protecting Israel for long on such flimsy premises.
