Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Malki said Sunday that Israeli occupation regime revoked his travel permit., part of a series of punitive steps against the Palestinians that Israel’s new hardline government announced days ago in the wake of a PA initiative at the UN against Israel’s holding of the West Bank.
In a statement, Al-Maliki said that he was returning from the Brazilian president’s inauguration when he was informed that occupation authorities rescinded a travel permit for top Palestinian officials that allow them to travel easily in and out of the West Bank, unlike ordinary Palestinians.
The Israeli occupation government on Friday approved the steps to penalize the Palestinians in retaliation for them pushing the UN’s highest judicial body to give its opinion on the Zionist regime’s control of the West Bank.
Al-Malki was forced to wait for an hour in line alongside regular Palestinian Authority citizens as he returned to the West Bank via the Allenby Bridge border crossing from Jordan, the Ynet news site reported.
Puzzled Palestinians reportedly asked the minister why he was waiting with them instead of passing through as a VIP.
He told Voice of Palestine radio that the steps Israeli occupation is taking are against international law and called on the international community to take a clear position to impress on ‘Israel’ that it doesn’t have a free hand on the matter.
The PA foreign ministry said in a statement that occupation authorities had canceled Malki’s VIP status without taking into consideration the ministry’s status and legal capacity.
Earlier on Saturday, Israeli occupation authorities revoked the entry permits of three PA officials, Mahmoud Aloul, Azzam Ahmad and Rawhi Fattouh, who visited Karim Younes, a Palestinian prisoner who was released from prison earlier this week after serving 40 years.
Source: Palestinian and Israeli media
