Windjammer
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President Pranab Mukherjee will be in Palestine on the second leg of his three-nation historic visit to West Asia.
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL: A controversy erupted today with Israel unlikely to permit entry of four communication systems to a university in Palestine as part of IT equipment to be gifted by President Pranab Mukherjee to the Al-Quds educational institution.
President Mukherjee is scheduled to inaugurate the state of the art Information Technology Centre at Al-Quds University tomorrow and the four communication systems are its crucial components.
While Israeli customs today cleared the passage of 30 computers which were stuck at the Ashdod port to be moved to the university, the communication systems remained at Ben Gurion airport. It is unlikely to be allowed inside the IT Centre.
Israeli sources sought to downplay the controversy saying that their law doesn't permit for the same.
"Like Indian laws do not permit satellite phones being carried into their territory, there are technical issues around frequencies involved in the communication systems that do not pass our legal requirements," they said.
Mr Mukherjee is also to be conferred an honorary doctorate from Al-Quds University.
The University is caught in current clashes between Palestinians and Jewish visitors, which have been going on since September after Israel banned the Al Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site of Islam located in the compound of Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif site also revered by Jews.
The new controversy came close on the heels of a much publicised objection from Israel to Mr Mukherjee's visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque, given the tense security situation in the region.
President Mukherjee will be in Palestine on the second leg of his three-nation historic visit to West Asia that will also take him to Israel. India has always been a leading partner in educational support and cooperation to Palestine.
Hundreds of scholarships are given to Palestinian students under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme to enable them to take up professional programmes in universities across India.
He concluded his visit to Jordan yesterday where President Mukherjee was honoured with a doctorate in political science for his 50 years of exemplary service to the Indian people and mankind in general by the University of Jordan.
