Barriers to
Travel in the Holy Land
By Mary
Pneuman
Recently,
our friend Pat received an urgent call to visit a daughter who was very ill in
a hospital in Nazareth, Israel. Although not of Arab descent, Pat had married a
Palestinian Anglican priest and lived for many years in Ramallah. During her
time there, restrictions on travel between the West Bank and Israel, made it
impossible to visit a daughter living in Nazareth, unless they met outside the
country. Ten years ago, Pat moved back to her home in England. Recounting her
efforts to be with her daughter, she says:
“I am not
allowed to travel to Israel as a British tourist. Hence, I had to fly to
Jordan, cross the border into Palestine, which involved a lot of hassle through
different checkpoints, then travel to Ramallah. There I had to visit various
Government offices to obtain a new Palestinian passport (mine had expired), a
new Palestinian identity card, and go to an Israeli office to ask for a permit
to enter Israel. I told the Israeli officer (who was American) my
circumstances, explaining that as a British citizen, I should be able to fly
direct to Tel-Aviv. “No,” he said,
“You are a Palestinian!”
Our friend
finally obtained a one-week permit with stipulations that she could visit her
daughter during daylight hours but must return to Ramallah by 7:00 pm each
night —she was not to sleep in Nazareth. Deciding to take the risk of ignoring
the conditions, she was most fortunate not to be stopped when she retraced her
steps to Ramallah, then to Jordan and back to England. But, she writes, “All
this meant that I not only had to spend six extra days travelling (three each
way) but at twice the expense. I might add that I am elderly and with my
British passport can travel anywhere in the world except Israel.”
Travel to or
through Israel has also become next to impossible for U.S. citizens of
Palestinian descent or with close Palestinian connections. Those whom Israeli
authorities suspect of being of Arab, Middle Eastern or Muslim origin or those
who have been involved in missionary work or activism may be denied entry into
Israel or the West Bank. According to the website of the American Consulate in
Jerusalem:
The Government of Israel does not currently permit U.S.
citizens with Palestinian nationality (or even, in some cases, the claim to it)
to enter Israel via Ben Gurion International Airport. Many travelers have been
sent back to the U.S. upon arrival. Others have been allowed to enter Israel
but told they cannot depart Israel via Ben Gurion without special permission,
which is rarely granted. Some families have been separated as a result, and
other travelers have forfeited expensive airline tickets.
Consider,
for example, a retired Seattle banker, a Christian, who was born in Jerusalem,
but has been an American citizen for over 30 years. He chose not to join our
November pilgrimage because he expected to be turned back at Ben Gurion airport.
Another Palestinian ex-pat (a Muslim woman born in Jerusalem, also a banker) is
unable to visit her sister there. Her sister will not come to the U.S. for fear
that she will not be allowed to return, or that her home will be taken under
the absentee property law.
Even though
prior confirmation may sometimes granted by the Israeli Embassy for entry from
Jordan into West Bank areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, “This stamp does not permit such travelers to
enter Jerusalem or Israel...appeals are rarely approved.”
While non-Palestinian
American members of Christian tours are generally allowed entry to Israel without
incident through Ben Gurion, couples
or individuals face many
difficulties, often not worth risking the cost of a ticket. Just before our
tour group was to leave Jerusalem, we met a retired doctor from Boston who was
waiting for a permit to visit Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, where she had been
invited to consult on plans for their new cancer center. Her husband (not a
doctor) had received a 24-hour permit and had just returned, but Israel guards
at the Erez crossing had confiscated his cPAP machine (he has sleep apnea).The
doctor was preparing to return to the U.S., expecting that her costly effort to
pursue her charity mission would be in vain.
The founding
of the State of Israel as a home for the Jewish people was the culmination of
the hopes of displaced and persecuted Jews who sought to escape the evils of discrimination
and tyranny and the horrors of the Holocaust. But in the 60 years since then, Zionist
nationalism and the growing influence of the religious right have been steadily
turning Israel from a place of safety and freedom for the Jews to a state that
is no longer a place of safety or freedom for everyone. No distinctions are made between Christian and Muslim populations
in the application of Israeli laws pertaining to Palestinian citizens of Israel
or Palestinians non-citizens living under military occupation in the West Bank
and Gaza.
It is clear
that not everyone is welcome in Israel, and not all enjoy equal rights in a
state considered to be democratic. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underscored
the point on March 4 when he said that if Palestinians really want peace with
Israel, they will recognize Israel as a Jewish state—“the right of the Jewish
people to a state of their own.” More recently, Defense Minister Avigdor
Lieberman has proposed the transfer of Arab-Israeli citizens to a new, but
undefined Palestinian state by shifting the borders. No longer citizens of
Israel, Palestinians would be moved to the West Bank or placed under the
Palestinian Authority in northern towns and villages near the Green Line in
exchange for Israel annexation of large West Bank settlements. Under
international law, the legal basis for such a proposal (once unthinkable) is
being explored.
Segregation
and the separation of Jews and Palestinians are not the result of physical
barriers alone. There are many existing or pending laws that legitimize
policies that deprive Palestinians of civil rights and due process, and in the
Israeli move to create a Jewish state, there is an alarming upswing in
aggressive acts toward Christians and their institutions.
In Part 6, read about challenges now
facing Christians and their churches in Israel/Palestine.
