Ramallah: Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem who need to travel abroad have been blindsided by a general strike at the Israeli Interior Ministry.
Because of the open-ended industrial action which began a week ago, Jerusalemites are effectively imprisoned in the city.
The strike is not affecting Israeli residents as their issues are handled by the Israeli Interior Ministry’s West Jerusalem office, which is operating normally.
“Israelis claim staff at the [occupied] east Jerusalem office had a labour dispute, although Jerusalemites believe the strike was planned,” said Fakhri Abu Diab, a member of the High Committee in defence of [occupied] Jerusalem in an interview with Gulf News. “Going on strike indefinitely will cause major and serious disruption to the lives of all Jerusalemites.”
Jerusalemites are allowed to travel abroad via the King Hussain Border Crossing (Allenby Bridge) or by air. The border crossing requires an Israeli exit permit from the regime’s Interior Ministry and air travel via Ben Gurion Airport and the Taba Border Crossing requires a two year laissez-passer passport also issued by the occupied east Jerusalem Israeli Interior Ministry.
Jerusalemites who are holders of temporary Jordanian passports prefer the exit permits to the laissez-passer passports because travel expenses for the passports are much higher and do not qualify them to go to Saudi Arabia to perform pilgrimage (Haj) and Umrah and reach other Arab states. “More than 99 per cent of Jerusalemites prefer the King Hussain border crossing [Allenby Bridge] for travelling abroad,” said Abu Diab.
Jerusalemites are not allowed to visit the Interior Ministry office in West Jerusalem, which is allocated for Israelis. “On normal working days, the [occupied] East Jerusalem office is basically a humiliation where Jerusalemites wait in long lines for many hours to finish a minor legality,” he said. “The number of staff in the office is very limited in an intentional move. We do not know where a labour dispute could come from?”
“Now there is no difference between occupied East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip at all. Palestinian people in both areas are locked in big prisons,” said Abu Diab. “Even in most urgent cases Jerusalemites cannot exit the holy city.”
Abu Diab said that the suffering of Jerusalemites is getting deeper where the Israeli occupation is connecting itself to them by force to make Jerusalemites a part of the occupation.
‘Misery’
The Israeli exit permit costs Jerusalemite $150 (Dh550) in fees to obtain and enables the holder to return to the holy city. “Without this permit there is no power on earth that enables a Jerusalemite, dead or alive, to return to his home city,” said Abu Diab.
Once a Jerusalemite crosses Allenby Bridge, the resident uses his temporary Jordanian passport and the traveller is allowed to spend a certain period of time on Jordan soil as specified by the Jordanian authorities.
“Jerusalemites are holders of Jordanian citizenship but are not Jordanians; they are holders of blue Israeli identity cards but are not Israeli, and they are originally Palestinian but are not Palestinians,” he said. “This is a misery which Jerusalemites live and it is expected to remain and deepen.”
Jerusalemites are currently launching a campaign demanding Jordanian authorities cancel the Israeli exit permits to allow them travel without them. Jordan considers the Israeli exit permit a precondition to allow Jerusalemites enter Jordan.
Jerusalemites believe that if the Jordanians cancel the required exit permit they will be freed substantially from the Israeli office of Interior Ministry in occupied East Jerusalem.
