Liberman Intervenes to Keep Beilin Out of Ramallah

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has intervened to prevent former Labor MK Yossi Beilin from meeting with Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, a report on Channel Ten said. Abbas had invited Beilin to his office in Ramallah, but Liberman ordered the IDF to prevent the meeting by refusing to grant Beilin a permit to enter Ramallah.

Beilin, along with other members of the Geneva Initiative, a peace plan that would have Israel surrender most of Yehudah and Shormon to the PA, filed a request with the IDF to be allowed to visit Ramallah to meet with Mohammed al-Madani, a senior PA official in charge of diplomatic relations with Israel. Several days ago, Abbas said that he wanted to meet with them as well.

The request was denied on security grounds. In the wake of the rejection Channel Ten sought comment from Liberman’s office, which cited security problems in granting the permit. In addition, the statement from Liberman’s office said, it would not be proper to grant such a request “because it attempts to undermine the government,” Channel Ten said.

MK Michal Rozin (Meretz) said in response that “not only is our new defense minister not bringing us defense – he is using the IDF to prevent the possibility of peace. The arrogance with which Liberman is leading the IDF to lie and serve his own political interests may bring us to very dangerous situations.”