The smart Palestinian writer Toufic Haddad has noticed that the Israeli authorities, which control all movement in and out of the occupied Palestinian territories, have recently started issuing new visas to people crossing into the West bank from Jordan– they clearly say the visa is good for “Palestinian Authority only.”
He has photos.
He writes,
- Previous Israeli-issued tourism visas do not restrict the freedom of movement of tourists who are allowed passage into the country, and who originate from countries which Israel has diplomatic relations and reciprocal arrangements regarding travel. That meaning, as long as someone was allowed into the country, they were able to travel freely whether they chose to visit the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, or the Palestinian city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
“Palestinian Authority only” greatly restricts this freedom of movement, and thus undoes the former arrangement. It essentially precludes travel to areas of pre-1967 Israel, as well as to Israeli controlled areas in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Israel exercises full control over 59 percent of the West Bank – areas known as “Area C.”
It further exercises security control over an additional 24 percent of the West Bank (Area B) with the Palestinian Authority [PA] in control of civil affairs there.
The only area which the PA nominally controls in full, and which a holder of this stamp is thus presumably eligible to travel to, is Area A. The latter comprises the remaining 17 percent of the West Bank.
He writes that,
- This happens to violate the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement (also known as “Oslo II” or “Taba”) which states that “Tourists to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from countries having diplomatic relations with Israel, who have passed through an international crossing, will not be required to pass any additional entry control before entry into Israel.” (Annex 1, Article IX “Movement Into, Within and Outside the West Bank and the Gaza Strip” 2 (e))
He notes that,
- Area A however is not composed of one territorial unit, but is divided into thirteen non-contiguous areas.
Furthermore, the Israeli army routinely invades Area As, to arrest Palestinians, making a mockery of Palestinian control there.
… Israel’s travel restrictions to PA areas are somewhat contradictory. Visitors can seemingly travel to Area As but must do so by crossing Israeli controlled areas (Area C). This means that visitors have the right to hop between different Area A ‘islands’, but can’t be caught in between.
He also notes that though western visitors to Israel and the OPTs would previously receive a three-month visa as a matter of routine, at least one recent visitor from the US was given a visa only to the Palestinian Authority areas, and only for one week.
People interested in freedom of travel issues should read his full post there.
Helena, why do you bother calling this Just World News? Your insane advocacy and propaganda has gone from transparent to obsessive and you are making a fool of yourself. IS this a Quacker thing or is it just you?
Do you mean quaker ?
He is probably just being abusive. Maybe he doesn’t understand or want to understand that a lot of folk in the world find it incredible that of all people Israeli Jews should seem to have based their entire state on a ‘might is right’ ethnic cleansing. (The savage irony of this seems to escape many, but not all, Jews).
One gets the impression that too many Jews still just wish the Palestinians could be totally erased from both history and life – or failing that just shunted away out of sight somewhere.
Helena,
may be little correction here, you wrote
The smart Palestinian writer Toufic Haddad
Toufic = توفيــق in Arabic
The most common English writing of the name is “Tawfiq”, and below some examples:
Tawfiq Zayyad (Palestinian poet)
Tawfiq al-Suwaidi former Iraqi prime minister (1891-1968).
iain,
many Jews still just wish the Palestinians could be totally erased from both history and life
You may like to read this what exactly the war in ME about:
And this:
Blackwater boss accused of ‘crusade to wipe out Muslims’
And the big one this:
helena, when i visited irael in june i was asked to sign a statement agreeing to not enter any area controlled by the PA. so i ask them, and what area that might be? i said it was obvious if the PA controlled the west bank there would be no settlements there and israel would not be allowed to enter whenever it wanted and haul off residents to drag them into the russian compound without charging them w/any crime whatsoever.
you can imagine that went over like a lead brick. but i eventually signed the agreement and then ignored it and went to bil’in and other areas in the WB anyway.
titus, why do you bother visiting here if you don’t like it? go away and leave those of us who respect helena and her reporting to read in peace. you calling israels visa restrictions propaganda means what? that it is untrue, that it is reasonable, that it is of no interest?
what i find interesting is that at a time when israel is seeking normalization w/other arab countries it is imposing restrictions on the ones it already has normalization policies with. makes you wonder if ‘normalization’ is just a one way street for israel.
“makes you wonder if ‘normalization’ is just a one way street for israel.”
Name something that is NOT a one way street for Israel. :o}
I call propaganda precisely the mindless barrage of outrageous labels and associations, the obsessive and out of proportion onanistic biased analysis without the entire context. Examples:
– VIsa restrictions? Well yes the country is literally at war yet is much is easier to visit than the alternatives. Three American stepped into Iran and nobody has heard from them. A declared hostile activist like Helena did travel all over Israel, gaza, and reported from there. Try that from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and so on.
– Ethnic cleansing? Helena has brought up the Israeli intent of trucking Palestinians out in multilpe ocassions. Somehow the reality is different, just look at the numbers since 48 and show me cleansing. All that while Yemeni Jews are almost extint, harassment and murder driving them away without any mention from Helena and her useful idiots.
Fighting radical Islam is happening in many fronts, although the only objections are when it flares up in Israel. When the American-Pakistani initiative drive 1-2 Million civilians into refugees that is fine, when the US uses drones no Spanish judge opens a cause, when the Iranian kill protesters and rape their own people in jail as we heard yesterday, that is just cultural.
And I do come here because I do learn a lot, about sad characters like Helena and some of the other anonymous hate mongers she attracts. It is useful to know how they really think even though I do not know what drives their hatred. And I do show these to youngsters that think that all people around them are fair, open minded and well intentioned, they are not. I do reaffirm my belief that Obama style talk cannot bridge all differences and there people with whom we will never have common ground. Period.
titus, why do you bother visiting here if you don’t like it? go away and leave those of us who respect helena and her reporting to read in peace. you calling israels visa restrictions propaganda means what? that it is untrue, that it is reasonable, that it is of no interest?
Annie, we come here despite boring idiots like yourself who try to monopolize the already monotone discourse. learn to deal with dissent like and adult or take a hike.
Titus calls Helena’s work insane advocacy and refers to her as a Quacker
Angie calls Annie a boring idiot and suggests she behaves like an adult or take a hike ….
I wouldn’t actually go so far as to suggest insanity but there is surely something irrational here in Angie telling Annie to behave like an adult’ by using language not so distant from a bullying child’s playground …. Is Angie in Titus’ ‘gang’ or something ….
Who are really the one’s behaving like children one may be entitled to ask …. 😉