The Palestinian foreign minister says on Sunday, January 8, 2023, that the Israeli occupation has revoked his travel permit, part of a series of punitive steps against the Palestinians that the new extremist Israeli government announced days ago.
Riad al-Malki said in a statement that he was returning from the Brazilian president’s inauguration when he was informed that the Israeli occupation had rescinded his travel permit, which allows top Palestinian officials to travel easily in and out of the occupied West Bank, unlike ordinary Palestinians.
A spokesperson for the Israeli occupation’s “defense ministry” confirmed the move to the Reuters news agency, calling it part of the implementation of a decision taken by the Israeli occupation on Friday to penalize the Palestinians for pushing the United Nations’ highest judicial body to give its opinion on the Israeli occupation.
On Saturday, the Israeli occupation said it had revoked entry permits for three senior Palestinian officials after they visited a Palestinian citizen, Karim Yunis, who was released recently after 40 years inside the Israeli prison.
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The moves follow a decision on Friday by the Israeli cabinet to withhold $39m in revenues from the Palestinian Authority and impose a moratorium on Palestinian construction projects in most of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that decision was in response to the UN General Assembly’s recent vote to refer the Israeli occupation of Palestine to the International Court of Justice at the PA’s request.
Israel’s Security Cabinet also said it would further deduct revenue it typically transfers to the cash-strapped PA – a sum equal to the amount the authority paid last year to families of Palestinian prisoners and those killed in the Israeli army’s attacks.
Netanyahu took office late last month at the head of a coalition with far-right and Jewish ultra-Orthodox parties that is regarded as the most right-wing in Israeli history.
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