|
Mahathir banned from Jerusalem
 Israel on Monday banned former Malaysian Premier Mahathir Mohammad, whose comments have in the past infuriated Jews, from entering Jerusalem while visiting the West Bank. Mahathir was delayed for an hour at the Allenby crossing from Jordan into the West Bank where Israeli officials banned him from going to Jerusalem or the city of Jenin in the West Bank, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qorei said. "I want to say to the entire world that this is the political mind of the occupation," Qorei told a joint news conference with Mahathir in Ramallah. "This is an important man, an international man and the Israelis prevent him from going to Jerusalem, they prevent him from going to Jenin," he added.Israeli authorities, who control entrance into towns throughout most of the West Bank, as well as the border into Jordan, said they had received no warning of Mahathir's arrival. "We received no request to facilitate the visit. We weren't aware he was coming, so we didn't deal with it," said a foreign ministry spokesman, pointing out that Israel has no diplomatic relations with Malaysia. Posted by: Fred 2005-05-17 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=119320 |