India has objected to Israel for not allowing the entry of diplomats of five countries to attend a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah. 

The meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement’s Palestine Committee on August 4-5 was cancelled at the last minute. 

Israel on Sunday stopped ministers and representatives of five countries - Bangladesh, Indonesia, Cuba and Malaysia - from entering Ramallah to attend the meeting of NAM’s Palestine Committee with Palestine authority. The meeting was aimed at supporting solidarity with the Palestine Authority in its campaign to upgrade its membership in United Nations. 

India’s representative and MEA Secretary (east) Sanjay Singh had gathered along with other officials in Jordan Capital Amman to take a helicopter ride to Palestine, when the news of Israel’s move arrived, leading to the cancellation of the trip. 

External Affairs Ministry Spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said India had taken strong objection to the fact that they were unable to express solidarity with the Palestinian people by holding that meeting in Ramallah

 A meeting of select envoys of the Palestinian Committee on Non-Aligned Movement due to convene in the West Bank City of Ramallah today has been cancelled. The step was taken by the organizing committee after Israel denied visa for four countries with whom it doesn’t have diplomatic relations.

These include Malaysia, Indonesia, Cuba and Bangladesh. Palestinian officials said that other guests, including the foreign ministers of Egypt and Zimbabwe, declined to attend in solidarity with those prevented from taking part. Israel, which controls access to the West Bank didn’t grant visa to the foreign ministers of Malaysia and Indonesia along with ambassadors from Cuba and Bangladesh on the grounds that the four countries do not recognize the Jewish state. 

The Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yigal Palmor said that Israel has cleared entry for representatives of countries which have diplomatic relations with Israel and not cleared those which do not.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee reacted sharply to the move. She said that Israel exploits its position as an occupying power to prevent Palestine from communication with the countries of the world and to isolate the Palestinian people and its institutions.

The meeting was convened to express solidarity of the NAM Movement with the Palestinian leadership ahead of the NAM Summit in Teheran by the end of this month.

he Quartet of international peace mediators will be meeting in Washington today to discuss the stalled Middle East peace process. The Quartet leaders -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have already called for the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks and a framework agreement by the end of 2012.

UN Riyadh Mansour said he was hopeful that the Quartet would be able to break the impasse so that stalled talks can be resumed.

The last Quartet summit took place in September at U.N. headquarters around the same time that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, submitted an application for full Palestinian membership. The move couldn’t sail through Security Council because of a US veto.

Palestinians have been insisting on a freeze on new settlements by Israel and return to border positions of 1967 for the resumption of peace talks. Israel says the talks can resume only without any pre conditions.

hree men have been executed in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, one of whom has been accused of collaborating with Israel.

 Under local law, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas must approve all execution orders, but Hamas refuses to conduct such consultations.