‘Israeli’ Regime Bars Three European FMs From Visiting Palestinian Towns

By Al Ahed Staff, Agencies

The Zionist regime’s Foreign Ministry prevented three visiting foreign ministers of European countries from entering certain Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks.

The foreign ministers of Ireland, the UK and Norway all visited in recent weeks and requested to visit Palestinian towns in Area C of the West Bank, which is fully controlled by the ‘Israeli’ occupation regime, and were denied access.

“After consulting with security officials, we decided not to allow them into specific sites, not all of Area C,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman told The Times of ‘Israel’ on Tuesday.

But the ‘Israeli’ military forces told the Walla news site, which first reported the decision to deny the foreign ministers’ access to the West Bank areas, that it did not advise the Foreign Ministry to do so, while the Shin Bet spy service said it did not hold any consultations with the Foreign Ministry on the matter.

The military liaison to the Palestinians, commonly known by its initials COGAT, claimed the Foreign Ministry only contacted it concerning Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin but that it did not recommend preventing his visit over security concerns.

European diplomats quoted in the report disputed that security concerns were a factor. The unnamed officials said they believed the move was part of a policy shift under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government, the vast majority of which opposes a Palestinian state and expanding Palestinian autonomy in Area C.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly visited the occupied territories in mid-September, about a week after Martin, and both met with Netanyahu. Norway Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt — who is frequently vocally critical of the Zionist entity — met with her ‘Israeli’ counterpart, Eli Cohen, in occupied al-Quds in mid-September, but did not meet with Netanyahu.

All three of the diplomats traveled to the occupied West Bank City of Ramallah to meet with top ‘Palestinian Authority’ officials, with both Cleverly and Martin holding sit-downs with PA President Mahmoud Abbas.