The leader of Germany's main opposition party expressed bewilderment Monday after the country's Jewish community angrily denounced a joint paper it issued with the Palestinian Fatah party.

The head of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), Sigmar Gabriel, said he was stunned by the criticism of the document pledging strategic dialogue with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's party.

The trial of four former Israeli military chiefs charged over a deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla has been adjourned to February 21, the relief group that organized the mission said on Monday.

Israel has angrily denounced the case as a "show trial" and none of the four defendants have appeared in the dock at the Istanbul court where the trial opened November 6.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's tomb was screened from public view on Monday in what a Palestinian official said was preparation for forensic examination of his body.

AFP journalists saw the iconic leader's mausoleum, at the entrance to presidential headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, was surrounded by blue tarpaulins.

U.S. President Barack Obama told Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday that his administration opposes a Palestinian bid for non-state membership of the U.N., the Palestinian leader's spokesman said.

"There was a long telephone conversation between president Mahmoud Abbas and Barack Obama," Nabil Abu Rudeina told Agence France Presse.

Palestinians are coordinating with Russia, as well as Swiss and French experts, on the exhumation of late President Yasser Arafat, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said Sunday.

Arafat died in a French military hospital near Paris on November 11, 2004 and French experts were unable to say what had killed him, with many Palestinians convinced he was poisoned by Israel.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill visited the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem on Saturday and met with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, on the second day of his Holy Land trip.

After his visit to the Bethlehem church, built over the site where Christians believe Mary gave birth to Jesus in a stable, Kirill met with the Palestinian president at his office in the West Bank city.

Syria's foreign ministry warned Palestinians against becoming embroiled in the country's uprising on Wednesday, telling them to stay well clear of armed opposition groups, state television said.

"Syria will strongly oppose any attempt to bring the Palestinians into what is happening in Syria," a ministry source said, urging them to direct their efforts at the Palestinian cause, Syria TV reported.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday congratulated U.S. President Barack Obama on his re-election and called on him to pursue Middle East peace efforts.

Abbas "congratulated U.S. President Barak Obama on his re-election as U.S. president for a second term," said a statement carried by official news agency WAFA.

The Palestinians will push on with a bid to achieve non-member status at the United Nations despite pressure for them to back down, top negotiator Saeb Erakat said on Monday.

"No matter what pressure we are facing... we will not go back on our decision," Erakat said in Amman after talks in the Jordanian capital between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi.

A Swiss laboratory team on Monday made a brief visit to the West Bank city of Ramallah to prepare for the exhumation of the late president Yasser Arafat, Palestinian sources said.

The team, along with French investigators, is expected to participate in an operation starting on November 26 to exhume Arafat's remains as part of a probe into the circumstances of his death in 2004.