JERUSALEM, Jan 8 (Portal) – Israel on Sunday suspended a passport facilitating the Palestinian foreign minister’s travel in and around the occupied West Bank as part of its response to Palestinian efforts to involve the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the conflict .
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing security cabinet on Friday announced a series of moves that included using Palestinian funds to compensate victims of Palestinian militant attacks and imposing a moratorium on Palestinian construction work in some areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israel collects taxpayers’ money on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli border officials confiscated Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki’s “VIP” travel card when he crossed into the occupied West Bank from Jordan, his office said.
A spokesman for Israel’s Defense Ministry, which administers the West Bank, confirmed the move, calling it part of implementing Friday’s government decision.
In a televised address to the Israeli cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu said the decision entailed, among other things, “sanctions against senior Palestinian figures.”
“The Palestinian Authority has lobbied the United Nations for an extremist anti-Israel resolution,” Netanyahu said.
On 30th December the UN General Assembly, in response to an appeal by the Palestinians, asked the International Court of Justice for an opinion on the legal consequences of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
On Saturday, Israel’s Defense Ministry said three other senior Palestinian officials had had their VIP cards revoked in response to their visit to a member of Israel’s Arab minority who was being held in prison for the murder of an Israeli soldier.
Issued under interim agreements with Israel in the 1990s, the cards facilitate travel across the Israeli-controlled West Bank border with Jordan and from Palestinian-ruled territory to Israel.
“The foreign minister will continue his work and diplomatic activities with or without a card,” Ahmed Al-Deek, an adviser to Maliki, told Portal.
Israel had confiscated Maliki’s VIP card in 2021 after he returned from a session of the International Criminal Court. It was not immediately clear when and why the map had been restored.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said during a briefing with reporters that he had approved the distribution of around 139 million shekels ($40 million) of frozen Palestinian funds to victims of Palestinian attacks.
“There is no greater justice than withdrawing money from the (Palestinian) Authority that has worked to support terrorism and remitting it to the families of terrorism victims,” he said.
Palestinian officials have condemned the Israeli actions and said they will continue to try to enlist support abroad.
($1 = 3.5028 shekels)
Reporting by Ali Sawafta, Nidal al-Mughrabi, Emily Rose; writing by Dan Williams; Edited by Elaine Hardcastle, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Barbara Lewis
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