Ending an Embarrassment

A federal judge in New York has now put aright what Congress so ill-advisedly set awry. District Court Judge Edmund L. Palmieri has ruled that the U.S. government has no legal authority to order the closure of the Palestine Liberation Organization mission to the United Nations. Congress attempted to require such an action when it last year passed the Anti-Terrorism Act, which labels the PLO as a terrorist organization and seeks to prevent it from benefiting from any operations in the United States.

What Congress failed to take any note of in so doing was the Headquarters Agreement negotiated by the United States and the United Nations in 1947. That treaty obligation sets out the rights and limits governing U.N. activities. Under it, Palmieri wrote, “the PLO mission to the United Nations is an invitee of the United Nations . . . and its status is protected by that agreement.” The Anti-Terrorism Act doesn’t override the treaty. In fact, the law that zipped through Congress--without a single committee hearing and as a rider to a veto-proof appropriations bill--doesn’t even mention the Headquarters Agreement, whether out of ignorance or willful disregard it is not clear.

What was clear at the time was the great political weight put behind the anti-PLO effort.The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying group that enjoys a lot of clout in Congress, had made the expulsion of the PLO from the United States its main legislative priority. The PLO’s connection with overseas terrorism is of course well established. Significantly, though, neither AIPAC nor anyone in Congress tried to show that the PLO’s information office in Washington or its U.N. mission in New York had ever been involved in terrorist activity. Small wonder that in his decision Palmieri was moved to remark on the “avoidance” and “lack of clarity” that he found in Congress’ action.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking to enforce the closure of the PLO mission was dismissed by Palmieri with prejudice, meaning that it can’t be brought again. That ought to bring to an end what by any standard was a wholly avoidable international embarrassment for the United States.