Israeli authorities confiscated the travel documents of Palestinian Foreign Minister, Riyad al Maliki, this Sunday on his return from a visit to the International Criminal Court (ICC) headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, where they apprehended Israel’s occupation have denounced. .
Following the trip, the minister’s companions have also been questioned by Israeli secret services – the Shin Bet – and the Palestinian Foreign Ministry was informed of the suspension of the special travel permit issued to Al Maliki as a senior Palestinian official.
Everything happened at the Allenby border crossing connecting Jordan to the Palestinian West Bank under Israeli occupation, as explained by a Palestinian Foreign Ministry official, Ahmad al Deek, in statements to The Times of Israel.
“The minister has been detained for half an hour and his staff has been there for an hour,” explains Al Deek. This special pass allows the Palestinian authorities to quickly pass Israeli controls.
The Shin Bet has not commented on this information, although an Israeli official has confirmed the incident and insists that the seizure of Al Maliki’s documentation is an exceptional case. “If so, we hope the Israelis will clarify it for us,” replied Al Deek.
Palestinian sources link what happened with Palestinian Authority support to the ICC’s investigation of alleged crimes committed in the Palestinian territories.
The ICC’s prosecutor’s office announced on March 3 the start of an investigation into the alleged abuses that have been committed since June 2014, after five years of preliminary investigation. It does this by pledging to investigate the matter “independently, impartially and objectively,” in apparent response to doubts in Israel and other countries, such as the United States.