Palestinian FM: Israel withdrew travel permits over U.N. move

• Israel had revoked a travel permission for senior Palestinian officials.
• Israel’s government adopted the measures to punish the Palestinians.
• Palestinians make up about a third of the city’s population.

Riad Malki claimed that he learned that Israel had revoked a travel permission for senior Palestinian officials while on his way home from Brazil.

As part of a series of sanctions against the Palestinians that Israel’s new hard-line government declared days ago, the Palestinian foreign minister said on Sunday that Israel had cancelled his travel authorization.

According to a statement from Riad Malki, he was returning from the inauguration of the Brazilian president when he learned that Israel had revoked a travel permission for senior Palestinian officials, preventing them from travelling freely in and out of the occupied West Bank like regular Palestinians.

Israel’s government adopted the measures to punish the Palestinians on Friday in retribution for their efforts to have the U.N.’s top court issue a ruling on the Israeli occupation.

The choice emphasises the firm stance the new administration is already adopting toward the Palestinians only a few days into office. It happens when violence in the occupied West Bank is on the rise and peace talks are becoming a distant memory.

Israeli police claim they broke up a meeting of Palestinian parents in east Jerusalem, a hotbed of Israeli-Palestinian hostilities, because the Palestinian Authority was funding it illegally. The National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist with a history of anti-Arab language and actions who now directs the police, is reported by the police to have ordered the operation.

The majority of the international community did not accept Israel’s subsequent annexation of east Jerusalem after it was taken during the 1967 Middle East conflict. The city is regarded as Israel’s unbroken, eternal capital. The eastern part of the city is where the Palestinians want their future state’s capital to be located.

Palestinians make up about a third of the city’s population, and Israeli authorities have long neglected and discriminated against them in areas including public services, housing, and education.

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