Key facts
- Israel blocked Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Fahmy from visiting Ramallah.
- The planned visit was intended to be Fahmy's first foreign trip since assuming office.
- Palestinian authorities confirmed Israel's rejection of the delegation's entry.
- The Arab Ministerial Committee, formed after the Gaza summit, also had its visit to Ramallah denied.
- The delegation stated Israel's actions violate its obligations as an occupying power.
Israel has blocked the Arab League's new secretary-general, Nabil Fahmy, from making his first foreign trip to Ramallah to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian administration governs parts of the occupied West Bank. The Arab League's secretariat was informed by Palestinian authorities of Israel's rejection of the visit to the occupied territories.
Fahmy stated that Palestinians in the West Bank suffer from a siege, surrounded by expanding settlements and settler-only roads, and are subjected to settler violence with the protection of the Israeli state. He described the situation as "brutality and terrorism."
The Arab Ministerial Committee, formed by the joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit on Gaza, also announced the postponement of its visit to Ramallah after Israel denied entry. This committee includes foreign ministers from Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Turkey, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Palestine, along with the Secretaries-General of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The visit was initiated by the Palestinian Authority and would have been the first time since the 1967 Israeli occupation that such a delegation was received in Ramallah, led by the Saudi foreign minister.
In a joint statement, the delegation declared Israel's decision a "blatant violation of its obligations as the occupying power" and a reflection of "arrogance and disregard for international law." They noted that Israel "continues its illegal policies that besiege the Palestinian people and their legitimate leadership, entrench occupation, and undermine prospects for a just and comprehensive peace."
According to analysis, Israel's decision is linked to shifting regional and Western attitudes toward the Palestinian issue and the war in Gaza, including tensions with the U.S. administration, European criticism of the Netanyahu government, and planned international conferences on the two-state solution.