One month after the Trump Administration announced that the office of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Washington would be closed, dozens of pro-Palestinian activists attended a ceremony that followed through on the American demand. Among those attending the closing ceremony was the President of the Arab American Institute John Zogby, who referred to the plight of the Palestinians as “the wound in the heart of the Arab world that has never healed.” U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton ordered the closure of the Palestinian mission last month, that after the PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas rejected the United States’ efforts to broker a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Furthermore, the mission in Washington actively sought to counter the efforts made by the Trump Administration to advance a peace process and advocated confronting Israel within international institutions, including a Palestinian demand to launch an investigation into Israel by the International Criminal Court in the Hague. It is important to note that Ambassador Bolton underscored, following his announcement, that he did not believe the closure of the PLO office in Washington would shut the door on a long-delayed Arab-Israeli peace plan that the Trump Administration has been developing for months.
