ISRAEL: ROW BETWEEN ISRAELI POLICE AND PALESTINIAN SECURITY MEN OVER VISIT OF BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY ROBIN COOK

Record ID: 398948

  • Title: ISRAEL: ROW BETWEEN ISRAELI POLICE AND PALESTINIAN SECURITY MEN OVER VISIT OF BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY ROBIN COOK
  • Date: 26th October 1999
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (OCTOBER 26, 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. MV: EXTERIOR AMERICAN COLONY HOTEL IN EAST JERUSALEM 0.06 2. GV/PAN: BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY ROBIN COOK ARRIVING AND GREETED BY PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY MEMBER FAISAL AL-HUSSEINI, THE TWO MEN GO INTO HOTEL FOR TALKS 0.16 3. SV/CU: ISRAELI POLICEMEN IN LOBBY OF HOTEL (2 SHOTS) 0.36 4.
  • Embargoed: 10th November 1999 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVABUZCMK2PS109M9GWB47KMUJNR
  • Story Text: A visit by British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook to Arab
    East Jerusalem has sparked a row between Israeli police and
    Palestinian security men claiming the sovereign right to guard
    the visitor.

    The tiff at the American Colony hotel, where Cook was
    meeting Palestinian official Faisal al-Husseini on Tuesday
    (October 26), ended with Israeli police detaining two of
    Husseini's Palestinian bodyguards for questioning.

    The incident, in a part of the holy city both sides claim
    for their capital, capped an otherwise unremarkable three-day
    trip for Cook, who made a diplomatic incident of his last tour
    in 1998 by challenging Israel's then-rightist policies.

    Jerusalem police spokesman Shmulik Ben-Ruby said police
    detained the two guards after they attacked an Israeli
    security man accompanying Cook on his visit and barred the
    Israeli from entering the hotel.

    Husseini told reporters: "One of the security people of
    the Israelis insisted on entering the room of the meeting.Our
    agreement with the British and with them was that the meeting
    room is only for those who have been invited for this meeting.

    He said even Palestinian security guards were not allowed
    to enter the room."It is a sort of humiliation -- they were
    trying to humiliate not only us but the British delegation.It
    is a very simple matter.The Israelis feel it is not their
    city, that they have no sovereignty here, that they have only
    control.The only thing that they can use against us is the
    control, is the power."
    "It (Jerusalem) is not theirs," he said.

    Palestinian security official Rami Tahboub, in charge of
    international relations at the PLO Jerusalem headquarters
    Orient House, told Reuters: "We agreed with the British that
    no Israeli security should enter."
    Israeli police made the arrests after Cook left the hotel.

    District Police Chief Yair Yitzhaki arrived and told Husseini
    that Israeli police would go in if the guards did not come
    out.A short time later the guards left the hotel and were
    arrested.

    Cook declined comment when asked whether he knew about the
    incident outside the hotel.British and Palestinian flags were
    set up side by side in the lobby.

    Israel, which captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the
    1967 Middle East war and annexed it, claims all of the city as
    its capital.Palestinians view East Jerusalem as the capital
    of a future state, and the issue is to be resolved in
    final-status talks due to be completed by next September.

    Shirking sensitive Israeli and Palestinian barometers of
    political symbolism centred on Jerusalem, Cook slept in Gaza
    and Tel Aviv during his three-day stay.


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