Arab League chief cancels Ramallah visit

Nabil Elaraby reportedly postpones first official trip to Palestinian territories after Israel refuses to let him fly in by helicopter

Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby speaks at a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday,  December 29. (Issam Rimawi/Flash90)
Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby speaks at a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday, December 29. (Issam Rimawi/Flash90)

Arab League secretary general Nabil Elaraby on Monday canceled his first official visit to Ramallah, which was set to take place Tuesday.

Elaraby’s office cited no reason for the last minute cancelation and said the visit “has been postponed to a date to be determined later.”

According to a senior official in Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s office, Elaraby’s trip was postponed because Israel refused to let him to fly directly by helicopter from Amman to Ramallah, Haaretz reported.

The Arab League chief was expected to discuss the French and Arab peace initiatives with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during his two-day stay in Ramallah

He was also to visit the tomb of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, as well the Ibrahimi Mosque connected to the Cave of the Patriarchs compound in Hebron.

A trip to the Al-Aqsa Mosque atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was not planned, Haaretz reported, because of the sensitivity and current strained tensions at the holy site.

The visit was to take place amid increased chatter over the possibility of jump-starting Mideast peace talks, with France sponsoring a multilateral conference and Israel expressing interest in pursuing the Arab Peace Initiative backed by the Arab League.

Elaraby attended the Paris peace summit at the start of June, which concluded with a warning that violence and settlement activity are imperiling a two-state solution and a call for an international conference on the issue before the end of the year. Israelis and Palestinians were not invited to the summit. Israel rejected the summit’s conclusion, while the PA welcomed the statement.

(L to R) French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, French President Francois Hollande and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon pose at an international and interministerial meeting in a bid to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, in Paris, on June 3, 2016. (AFP Photo/Pool/Stephane de Sakutin)
(L to R) French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, French President Francois Hollande and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon pose at an international and interministerial meeting in a bid to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, in Paris, on June 3, 2016. (AFP Photo/Pool/Stephane de Sakutin)

During a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo at the end of May that convened to discuss the French initiative, Elaraby, who has been a vocal critic of Israel, said the Jewish state “has truly become today the last bastion of fascism, colonialism and racial discrimination in the world.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently offered support for some parameters of the Arab Peace Initiative, which promises Israel full diplomatic ties with 57 Arab and Muslim states after it cements a peace accord with the Palestinians, in a move seen as a dramatic change in policy.

The Israeli announcement came after it was reported that Arab states had sent a message to Netanyahu indicating their willingness to discuss changes to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.

Elaraby, however, quickly responded to Netanyahu’s announcement on the Arab Peace Initiative, saying on June 4 that the Arab League would reject any attempts to amend the proposal.

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