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Israel rejects UK travel request
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israel has turned down requests by the UK foreign secretary to allow a Palestinian delegation to attend a London conference later this month. Israel's Foreign Secretary Benjamin Netanyahu said a travel restriction on Palestinians was needed after two almost simultaneous suicide attacks in Tel Aviv which killed at least 22 people and wounded more than 100. The travel ban is part of a package of restrictions imposed by Israel's so-called "kitchen Cabinet" after Sunday's bomb attacks. UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had phoned his Israeli counterpart calling on the government to allow the Palestinian delegation to attend the conference aimed at helping reform the Palestinian Authority and jolt the peace process forward. But a spokesman for Netanyahu said his boss quoted U.S. President George W. Bush in saying that those involved in terrorism cannot be part of any process. Netanyahu accused British leaders of creating the opposite effect in that they are dealing with a terrorist leadership, the spokesman added. Straw replied that it was Israel that was creating the opposite effect. Instead of concentrating on terror, it is harming the messengers that are opposed to it. Netanyahu, who blamed Fatah militias linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the bombings, told Straw that Arafat teaches his people and his children to become suicide bombers. "Arafat is not preventing this but is sending to London puppets in the cover of reforms. Arafat has to carry out the reforms here and not there, starting with stopping the incitement and ending with stopping suicide bombers," Netanyahu said. A spokesman said Netanyahu emphasized that the Israeli Cabinet decision to keep the delegation from traveling is not aimed at Britain but is the minimal step needed. "One cannot go on with business as usual after such a massacre," Netanyahu said. Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair had invited Palestinian leaders to the conference along with the quartet, the European Union, Russia, the U.S., and the United Nations last month. (Full Story) Israel's "kitchen Cabinet," made up of members of the security Cabinet plus the heads of various coalition parties in the government, met immediately after Sunday's bombings and decided overnight to impose additional restrictions on Palestinians including the closure of three Palestinian universities in the West Bank and to intensify arrests and targeted killings by IDF of those alleged to be involved in terror. (Full Story) The two suicide bombers set off their explosives near a bus station in Tel Aviv at 6.30 p.m. (1630 GMT). (Full Story) The area is home to a large number of immigrant workers, and was the scene of another suicide attack in July that left five people dead. It was the deadliest since March 2002, when the bombing of a hotel dining room during Passover killed 29 Israelis and wounded 140.
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