JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel suspended on Sunday a VIP pass easing the Palestinian foreign minister’s travel in and across the occupied West Bank, amongst retaliatory measures for a Palestinian bid to involve the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of their decades-old conflict.
Entering the Israeli-occupied West Bank from Jordan, Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki was detained for half-hour by border guards who confiscated his “VIP” travel card, his office said.
A spokesperson for Israel’s Defence Ministry, which administers the West Bank, confirmed the move, calling it a part of the implementation of a government decision on Friday.
In that call, Israel announced retaliatory measures after the U.N. General Assembly, responding to an appeal by the Palestinians, asked the ICJ for an opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
Among the many five measures listed was “revocation of advantages for VIPs leading the legal-diplomatic war against Israel”.
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On Saturday, Israel’s Defence Ministry said the VIP cards of three other senior Palestinian officials had been revoked in response to them visiting a member of Israel’s Arab minority who had been imprisoned for killing an Israeli soldier.
Issued under interim accords with Israel from the Nineteen Nineties, the cards ease travel across the Israeli-controlled West Bank border with Jordan and from Palestinian-ruled territory into Israel.
“The foreign minister will proceed his job and his diplomatic activities with or without the cardboard,” Ahmed Al-Deek, an aide to Maliki, told Reuters.
Israel had confiscated Maliki’s VIP card in 2021 after he returned from a gathering of the International Criminal Court. It was not immediately clear when and why the cardboard had been restored.
(Reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Writing by Dan Williams;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
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