Israel prevents Palestinian minister from travelling

Israeli occupation authorities issued an order banning the member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, Adnan Al-Husayni, from travelling for three months and forced him to sign a financial guarantee of 10,000 shekels ($2,676) after confiscating his passport.

On Wednesday, the Shin Bet Security Agency (Shabak) summoned Al-Husayni to the Al-Maskoubiya detention centre in occupied Jerusalem where he was informed of the decision to prevent him from travelling to Lebanon to participate in an international conference organised by the United Nations.

Al-Husayni was due to deliver a speech on behalf of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the conference, in which Lebanese President Michel Aoun and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will also take part.

The decision also included preventing him from travelling for three months.

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The Jerusalem Affairs Department in the PLO condemned the decision, describing it as unprecedented and a scandalous violation of all international norms and laws.

It stressed that “whatever actions are taken by the occupation authorities, they will not be able to silence the voice of what’s right which demands ending the occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital following the 1967 borders.”

“This decision comes within the framework of a series of occupation resolutions that have significantly escalated since the American decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, including the escalation in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, against the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the demolition of houses, the establishment of settlements and restrictions on the population, and finally the decision to displace more than 700 Palestinians from their homes in Silwan.”

It added that “all these resolutions call on the international community to act urgently to put an end to the Israeli practices and crimes by providing international protection to the Palestinians living under occupation, and ending the occupation itself as it is the last one on earth.”

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