Congress: 115 · Status: active · Israel/Palestine classification: pro-Israel
Data (JSON) — machine-readable record of this bill (identifiers, sponsor, classification, actions, and the member-by-member vote breakdown).
Official record on Congress.gov — full text, actions, and cosponsor history for S 1060.
Sponsor: Cruz, Ted (R-Texas)
PLO Accountability Act of 2017 This bill amends the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 to authorize the President to waive for up to six months the prohibition against establishment or maintenance of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) offices, headquarters, premises, or other facilities within U.S. jurisdiction if the President certifies to Congress that the Palestinians have entered into a final negotiated peace agreement with, and have ceased hostilities against, Israel or that: the Palestinians have not, on or after January 1, 2017, obtained state standing in the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof outside an agreement negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians; the Palestinians have officially ceased to be International Criminal Court (ICC) members and have withdrawn from the Rome Statute of the ICC; any ICC investigation against Israel initiated by, or on behalf of, the Palestinians has been withdrawn and terminated; the PLO and the Palestinian Authority (PA) no longer provide financial awards, payments, salaries, or benefits to Palestinians who have committed terrorist attacks, their families, or the families of those who died committing acts of terrorism; and the PLO and the PA have ceased to engage in a pattern of incitement against the United States or Israel.
This law tightens restrictions on PLO offices in the US by requiring the President to certify that Palestinians have met specific conditions before allowing any PLO presence. Those conditions include: reaching a final peace deal with Israel, not seeking UN statehood outside of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, withdrawing from the International Criminal Court, stopping payments to families of Palestinians killed or imprisoned for attacks, and halting anti-US or anti-Israel rhetoric campaigns. The President can only waive the ban for six months at a time.
This legislation makes it harder for Palestinians to operate politically in the US by attaching multiple preconditions—including ICC withdrawal and ending payments to families affected by armed resistance—that go beyond traditional peace agreement terms. It effectively gives Congress leverage to block Palestinian diplomatic presence unless those specific demands are met.