Belgian Cabinet Member, Charles Michel, Denied a Visit to Besieged Gaza Strip by Israeli Occupation Government

IOG blocks travel of Belgian minister to Gaza

[ 25/01/2010 - 06:15 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--

The Israeli occupation government (IOG) on Sunday blocked the travel of Belgian cooperation and development minister Charles Michel into the Gaza Strip at the pretext that the visit would give legitimacy to Hamas's rule.

The minister said, after meeting with Israeli deputy foreign ministry Danny Ayalon on Sunday, that his request to visit Gaza fell in line with efforts to support citizens in the Strip.

Michel said that the IOA position was not acceptable and that he would raise the issue with the European Union, adding that he asked Ayalon to assist in ensuring that humanitarian assistance was reaching the besieged Strip.

The IOG had recently refused to allow French external affairs minister Bernard Kouchner to visit Gaza to inspect a hospital that France had rehabilitated.

For his part, MP Jamal Al-Khudari, the head of the popular anti siege committee, said that the IOA step indicated that it was exercising "terrorism".

He said in a press release on Monday that the IOA refusal to allow Michel's visit meant that it was afraid of ending Gaza's isolation from the outside world.

The IOG fears international solidarity with Gaza and visits of foreign solidarity activists because they would unmask its real image, the MP elaborated.

Khudari asked ministers wishing to visit Gaza to pressure their governments into pressuring the IOA to allow their visits as a right to inquire about the real conditions of the besieged Palestinians.

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