Egyptian chamber of commerce refuses to deal with Israel

The chairman of the federation of the commercial chambers in Egypt Khaled Abu Ismael on Monday said that the federation refuses Israel's participation in a conference to be convened by the Euro-Mediterranean chambers in Cairo next week.

In statements he made on Monday in Cairo, Ismael added he refused to invite Israel to the conference which will start its activities on Monday "because we refuse to deal with Israel as far as it does not withdraw from the occupied Arab lands and the Arab people have not restored back their legitimate rights."

He continued: " we have notified the European chambers of commerce and their counterparts in the Arab and Mediterranean states about our decision not to extend an invitation to the chamber of commerce in Israel.

The conference is held once every two years within the course of the Euro- Mediterranean forum and the recent meeting was held in Italy. However, the Arab states which took part in the Euro-Mediterranean conference which was held in Marseilles in November 2000 criticized the European Union for its stand towards what is taking place in the Palestinian territories and for not denouncing the Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.