Jerusalem Convention traffic denied entry by Israel

A group of worldwide non secular figures and politicians, including a Ghanaian legislator, were denied entry by Israel after they had been jam to serve a conference in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

The ninth Worldwide Convention on the Holy Metropolis of Jerusalem kicked off on Wednesday, but there became as soon as a obvious absence of attendees, including a Thirteen-member Indian delegation, a mufti from Sri Lanka, a Bosnian Muslim student, and the head of Australia’s Islamic Council.

Ras Mubarak, a member of Ghana’s parliament, became as soon as attributable to bring a speech at the conference but became as soon as became away twice at the Allenby border crossing.

« I arrived on Tuesday but became as soon as denied entry and instructed to return this morning easiest to catch the identical harassment and be denied entry yet all as soon as more, » Mubarak instructed Al Jazeera, including that he became as soon as honouring an invitation by the Palestinian Authority to direct at the conference.

« The Israelis asked me what I became as soon as going to blueprint in Palestine, » he continued. « They had given me permission to enter, and then they revoked this authorisation.

« They didn’t give me any causes for denying me entry. »

Mubarak, a member of the Nationwide Democratic Congress occasion, mentioned the Israelis became away two buses of of us, including teachers and Muslim students, who had arrived at the border.

Mubarak described the ordeal at the border as « wretched, but no longer gorgeous ».

« It is a long way never the first time they fill averted a flesh presser or activist from coming into the West Bank, » he mentioned. « It is a long way fragment of an strive to annoy chums of Palestine.

« It is a long way incumbent upon all of us to speak solidarity at the African Union and UN level to ensure this does no longer defend taking place. »

‘There will not be any longer this form of thing as a Palestine’

Ami Mehl, Israeli ambassador to Ghana, instructed Ghana’s Starr Data radio that Mubarak’s claims of being denied entry for no motive had been « lawful no longer magnificent ».

« He got right here with out a visa to the border, [and] became as soon as asked to wait, » Mehl instructed radio host Naa Dedei Tettey.

« I became as soon as in the center of a conversation with Israeli authorities about his case and after I became as soon as notified he had determined to flip wait on and scamper wait on to his hotel in Jordan. »

When Tettey mentioned that Mubarak mentioned he had Israeli clearance to visit the West Bank, Mehl mentioned that became as soon as a « total lie ».

Mehl then lost his frigid after Tettey quoted Mubarak as asserting he had permission from Israel to enter the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories).

« Whenever you like to focus on over with me, you’ll inform the terminology I inform, » he shouted. « There will not be any longer this form of thing as a OPT; there’s never a Palestine, there became as soon as by no manner a Palestine. It is a long way Israel. »

« It be bullsh**, it’s propaganda, » the Israeli ambassador went on. « [Mubarak] got right here to Israel with out a visa. He is a propaganda machine for the Palestinians, so we blueprint no longer make a choice him severely ».

Dart permits revoked

Mahmoud Hamad, who’s guilty for receiving the conference’s guest delegations after they unsuitable the Allenby border, instructed Al Jazeera that every particular person the contributors had been issued Israeli scamper permits to enter the West Bank.

« Sixty-five internationals flew into Amman airport carrying scamper permits from Israeli authorities, » Hamad mentioned. « These permits had been revoked upon their arrival to Allenby border.

« They got right here from in all places the area: Australia, Mozambique, Guatemala, UK, Nigeria, Bulgaria, Ghana, South Africa, Sweden, Italy, Sri Lanka, Zambia.

« The Israeli border authorities instructed them all that as contributors of the ninth Worldwide Convention on Jerusalem, they might be able to not enter. »

Preparations, including accommodation, had been made for the invitees in Amman as yet some other, and they also participated in the conference through satellite tv for pc video.

Jerusalem reason ‘alive and successfully’

The foremost conference became as soon as held in 1931 by Jerusalem’s Mufti Hajj Amin Husseini to counter the British Mandate insurance policies affecting the jam of Jerusalem.

The 2nd conference became as soon as held in 2011, and has been hosted every twelve months since then, with invitations prolonged to masses of delegations, basically from at some stage in the Arab and Muslim world, « to direct about the significance Jerusalem holds amongst the three Abrahamic religions in the face of Israel’s intransigence and occupation ».

Khalil Karajeh, a member of the conference’s preparatory committee, mentioned this twelve months’s conference became as soon as below the theme of « Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine ».

« It became as soon as a deliver to US President Donald Trump’s option to recognise town as Israel’s capital, » Karajeh instructed Al Jazeera.

« The conference is a message to the area that the Jerusalem reason is alive and successfully in the hearts of of us. »

Karajeh mentioned « quite quite quite a bit of our Muslim brothers, especially the Turkish of us, feel that visiting Jerusalem is compulsory since it holds Islam’s third holiest jam, » relating to al-Aqsa Mosque.

For Ras Mubarak, it became as soon as his first strive to visit the West Bank. He confirmed that he would file a complaint with the Ghanaian parliament.

« What came about is unacceptable, » he mentioned. « Israel is erroneously described as the absolute best democracy in the Heart East, but after I learn about the wicked violation of the rights of Palestinians and chums of Palestine, there’s never a manner it’ll be described as so.

« If Israel needs its residents to be treated with respect and dignity, it have to reciprocate. »

Extra reporting by Arwa Ibrahim

Apply Linah Alsaafin at @LinahAlsaafin