Israel denies official Indonesian delegation entry to West Bank: reports
The Palestinian Foreign Minister traveled to Amman to meet his Indonesian counterpart
Israel denied entry to the West Bank for an official delegation from Indonesia, including Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, on Sunday, Wafa News Agency reports. The delegation had arrived in order to attend an inauguration ceremony for an honorary Indonesian consulate in Ramallah.
As a result, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki went to meet his counterpart Marsudi in Amman, Wafa says, where they discussed bilateral ties among other mutual concerns.
"In recognition of the historical and unique ties between Palestine and Indonesia and this country's supportive stance with the Palestinian people, al-Malki traveled to Amman to meet with his Indonesian counterpart," the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
According to Haaretz, Israel stopped the delegation from entering due to Marsudi's refusal to go to Jerusalem in order to meet Israeli government officials. There are no diplomatic ties between Israel and Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world.
Following the Islamic summit conference in Jakarta a week ago, which was attended by both Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Marsudi, the Indonesian foreign minister announced that she would be visiting the PA, Haaretz says.
Abbas met Indonesian President Joko Widodo during the conference, where the latter said that products made in "illegal Israeli settlements" in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights, Haaretz reports.
Israel's current policy regarding visiting foreign officials entering the West Bank is that they must also visit Israel, Haaretz says — unless they are from Muslim or Arab countries. Sunday's move appears to have broken with this policy, although the Prime Minister's Office has not yet responded to the incident.