Palestine Liberation Organisation criticizes Uhuru’s visit to Israel

Two leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organisation have criticised President Uhuru Kenyatta's recent visit to Israel.

"Such behaviours boost the Israeli occupation and create a position of collusion between Kenya and the Israeli occupation," senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi said in a statement the organisation issued on Thursday.

The African Union should declare its opposition to such dealings with Israel, Mt Ashrawi added, according to report on Saturday by the Palestine News Network.

The PLO official urged the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to take the same action in response to President Kenyatta's trip to Israel, the first by a Kenyan head of state in 22 years.

The PLO noted that the Kenyan leader did not visit any of the occupied Palestinian territories nor meet with any Palestinian National Authority representatives.

Mr Kenyatta did go to an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank where he met with Kenyan students.

"No one has the right to visit in these territories without an advance coordination with the Palestinian leadership," PLO Secretary General Dr Saeb Erekat declared.

Dr Erekat added that President Kenyatta's three-day visit "breached Kenya's obligations not to recognise as lawful a situation created through the illegal use of force and other violations of peremptory norms under international law."

Kenya voted in the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 for a resolution that gave Palestine the status of a non-member state of the UN.