Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Palestinian Authority Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh met Sunday evening, al-Sheikh reported.
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According to the PA official, the meeting stressed the need for diplomatic ties between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Prior to the announcement that he had met with Lapid, al-Sheikh said that on Monday a list would be published containing the names of 500 additional Palestinian families to receive citizenship. The list was published following understandings reached between Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Al-Sheikh is considered a member of Abbas' inner circle.
Recently, al-Sheikh said the Israeli government had officially rejected an official request from the PA for a visit to imprisoned terrorist Nasser Abu Hamir, who is serving a long sentence for his involvement in terrorist attacks during the Second Intifada and now has cancer. Al-Sheikh said the PA held Israel responsible for Abu Hamir's life and called on international institutions to pressure Israel in his case.
Israel kept the visit with al-Sheikh under wraps. Lapid's office said that the meeting had been coordinated with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, as well as with Gantz. Lapid has long been talking to senior PA officials, but decided not to make those talks public.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar recently reported that as the eighth general conference of the Fatah movement approaches, and Fatah is preparing to make unilateral changes to the PLO, al-Sheikh and another senior PA official, Majid Farj, have taken additional steps to tighten their hold on key positions in both the Fatah and the PLO as Jibril Rajoub and Marwan Barghouti find themselves marginalized in the race to succeed Abbas.
This month, the Fatah central committee elected al-Sheikh as its representative in the PLO. The committee reaffirmed its support for Abbas as head of the movement and head of the "state of Palestine."
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