Israel has again demonstrated its refusal to observe international law and how it is ready to go to any lengths to frustrate the Palestinians. It deliberately ignored the bounds of acceptable diplomatic behaviour when it banned the entry into Palestine of several foreign ministers from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The foreign ministers from the 13 countries on NAM’s Palestine Committee were due to meet in Ramallah yesterday to back Palestinian plans to seek upgraded membership at the United Nations.
Five of the 13 countries on the committee do not recognise Israel, and while Algeria (the only Arab member) deliberately decided not to send its representative in order not to inflame the situation, the foreign ministers of Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Cuba tried to get to the meeting in Ramallah. They knew that they would not be able to cross Israeli borders, but even so they were refused permission by the Israeli military authorities to fly in a helicopter direct from a Jordanian airport to the planned meeting in Ramallah.
The Israeli move is all part of the Netanyahu’s government’s bitter campaign against the Palestinians seeking full membership of the United Nations. And no doubt the foreign ministers expected some kind of discrimination from the Israeli authorities, but the expectation of an evil act does not make it any less wrong.
The Netanyahu government has been very clever in making a huge issue out of two subsidiary issues which have distracted the international community from the core of the Palestinian problem, which is the continuing occupation of the West Bank and refusal to allow free passage to Gaza. Israel has made a significant issue of stopping Palestine from seeking full membership of the United Nations, and of insisting on Israel being recognised as a ‘Jewish’ state.
By making a lot of noise to put a focus on these issues, the Netanyahu government has been able to divert international attention from its continuing efforts to illegally strengthen its colonies in the West Bank, which give it a long-term strategic advantage.
