Kuwaiti MPs to Abbas: You are "Not Welcome" Here

[Editor's Note: In Arab culture, hospitality is a highly prized value. A declaration such as this -- well-night unthinkable in local custom -- has far more significance in the Arab world than it would in the West.]

Arab News, Kuwait City, January 14, 2009 - A group of 21 Kuwaiti MPs said yesterday Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was “not welcome” at a planned Arab economic summit here next week, criticizing his response to the Gaza war.

The deputies, mostly Sunni and Shiite Islamists, in the 50-member house rejected his visit for the summit due to start on Monday as “undesirable”.

Abbas has shown “negative and weak stances over the Zionist onslaught on the Palestinian people besieged in Gaza,” the deputies said in a statement, urging the government to declare his visit to the country as “unwanted”.