Yesterday, Israel withdrew a VIP card from Palestinian Foreign and Expatriate Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki, and according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Affairs, the card was seized from al-Maliki without regard to his legal capacity after he returned to the West Bank today after a foreign visit to Brazil to attend the inauguration of President Lula da Silva. Ahmed Al-Dik, a political adviser to the foreign minister and expatriates, said Israel’s actions were “a flagrant violation of international law and the agreements and understandings signed between the Israeli and Palestinian sides,” according to the statement.
Al-Maliki was born on May 31, 1955 in Bethlehem. He is a civil engineer. Previously, he was the Minister of Information in the Palestinian National Authority, a spokesman for the Palestinian government, and a lecturer at Birzeit University. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriate Affairs since the formation of the second government of Salam Fayyad in 2009, through the third government of Salam Fayyad, and the first, second and third governments of Rami Hamdallah, and he is still in office in the government of Muhammad Shtayyeh formed in 2019.
