World Court Hits U.S. Move Against PLO

The World Court today ruled against the United States’ attempt to shut down the Palestine Liberation Organization’s mission in New York.

The ruling implicitly condemned the U.S. move to close the PLO mission to the United Nations by supporting the U.N. position that the dispute must be submitted to independent arbitration. The ruling was the court’s second decision against the United States in two years. In 1986, the United Nations’ judicial arm condemned as a violation of international law the Reagan Administration’s support for the rebels fighting Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. The World Court has no enforcement powers and depends on voluntary adherence to its rulings.

The PLO office dispute emanates from American anti-terrorist legislation signed into law by President Reagan last December. The legislation aims at closing the PLO’s 14-year-old observer mission to the United Nations in New York.