Israel's Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has announced that his government would boycott foreign diplomats who meet with members of the new Hamas-led Palestinian government.
The decision was made during a special meeting held by Olmert to discuss Israel's policies in the wake of the accession last month of the government led by the radical Islamist movement.
‘Foreign visitors who meet with Hamas officials will not be authorised to meet Israeli officials,’ Olmert said in a statement released after the meeting Sunday.
The boycott is similar to that instituted by Israel towards foreign officials who chose to meet with the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat before his death in November 2004.
Foreign ministers who met Arafat were only able to meet with Israeli officials after they returned to the region at later dates.
Although the move is designed to dissuade anyone holding talks with the Hamas-led government, the statement said officials who meet the moderate Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas would not be shunned.
Israel regards Hamas as a ‘terrorist’ organisation and has vowed to have no contacts with the new government unless the movement renounces the use of violence and recognises the Jewish state's right to exist.
The acting prime minister, set to head the next Israeli government after winning last month's general election, also reiterated that Israel would not hold contacts with the Palestinian government led by Hamas, branding it a ‘a hostile authority.’
Hamas has carried out dozens of anti-Israeli suicide attacks since the launch of a the Palestinian uprising in September 2000, although none in the last year.