32 congressional lawmakers, including Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry. The letter, which was dated Dec.18, demands the revocation of a waiver that allows PLO office to stay open considering the Palestinian leaders encourage violence against Israeli. US State Department rejects such call.
They also argued that Palestinian leaders wanted to promote violence against Israelis, this includes a wave of knife-wielding attacks towards the citizens in recent months.
However, the State Department rejected the calls of 32 lawmakers. The office in Washington said it is against the move because 'we believe the PLO is an important partner in advancing the two-state solution'.
According to a copy of the letter posted on Ted Cruz's website, "The United States government has an obligation to publicly denounce the PLO's actions and should immediately revoke its waiver." He then added that by allowing the PLO to maintain an office in Washington, D.C provides no benefit to the peace process or to the United States itself.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Trudeau, a spokesman for the State Department, told reporters at a briefing that ""closing the PLO office would be detrimental to our ongoing efforts to calm tensions between Israeli's and Palestinians, advance a two-state solution and strengthen the US-Palestinian partnership." She then added that since 1994, every US administration had used the waiver to keep the PLO office open."We believe the PLO has a valid place ... and we'd oppose those efforts" to close the office, Trudeau said, adding that Kerry had condemned the attacks.
The Palestine Liberation Organization was established by Yasser Arafat in 1964. The PLO aims to establish a Palestinian state to replace Israel. It was formed three years before Israel captured Gaza, the West Bank, and the other territory during the Six Day War, underlines that the goal is to conquer Israel itself.
Israeli-Palestinian talks has been inactive since 2014 and bloodshed raised concerns about a possible third Palestinian uprising.
