Want to shake Mahmoud Abbas’s hand? Not so fast. Our correspondent Ali Sawafta was surprised by a change in protocol at a meeting with the Palestinian president:
“I went to the opening of the first public park in the West Bank. Standing in front of the tent where the opening festivities were being held and Abbas was to speak, was a guard carrying a bottle of hand sanitizer. Everyone who went in had to use some in order to get in the tent. No one was exempt from the procedure, whether they were ministers or businessmen.
“Many of us attending wondered if the goal was to prevent passing swine flu to the president. Officials called the procedure simply a ‘basic health measure’.”
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