Abbas meets with MK Ayman Odeh, calls on Arab countries to allow visits by Israeli Arabs

Joint List members to visit Qatar.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (photo credit: REUTERS)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
(photo credit: REUTERS)
All members of the Joint List, headed by MK Ayman Odeh, will soon visit Qatar, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Saturday.
Abbas made the announcement during a meeting in Ramallah with Odeh and the head of the Islamic Movement (southern branch) in Israel, Abdallah Nimer Darwish.
Abbas said that the Arab League was also planning to receive all members of the Joint List in Cairo but did not say when the visits to Cairo and Doha would take place.
However, he expressed hope that the Arab countries would change their policy and allow Israeli Arabs to visit.
This was Abbas’s first meeting with the Joint List leader since the March 17 general election.
Abbas had previously praised the Arab parties in Israel for running in the election in a united list.
Saturday’s meeting was attended by top Fatah official Mohamed Madani, Mahmoud Habbash, Abbas’s advisor on religious affairs, and Maher Ghneim, a senior PA official.
‭‮