Ramallah: The Israeli Shin Bet security service has barred thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank from crossing the King Hussain border bridge (the Allenby border crossing) into Jordan.

The Palestinians termed the Israeli move, for which no explanation has been given, as a collective punishment being meted out to them.

According to Israeli daily, the Haaretz, the Israeli security service barred 1,463 Palestinians from crossing into Jordan in July alone after some colonists went missing. Last year, 1,266 Palestinians were stopped from crossing the Allenby border crossing.

Most of those barred most recently are students, academics and those who live and work abroad (holders of official residency permits in different countries around the world) who spent their summer vacations with their families in the West Bank.

The Haaretz said that the Shin Bet had no criteria on the basis of which it was imposing the restriction on Palestinians but those barred from crossing the bridge had not been summoned for interrogation, nor had they been arrested by the Israeli forces.

Palestinians denied access to Jordan had been referred to the Palestinian-Israeli Civil Affairs Liaison Office, where they were told that the ban on their travel would be removed by the beginning of August and that they could cross the bridge with no objection then. A senior official from the Palestinian Borders and Crossings Department said that the Israelis had not kept their word. The official said that, since the beginning of August, more than a 1,000 additional Palestinians had been barred from crossing into Jordan without any explanation except that the refusal was based on security grounds. The official said that the move amounted to collective punishment.

“Those who have been barred from crossing into Jordan live and work abroad and arrive in the West Bank regularly and annually to spend the summer vacation with their families and the Israeli security service has never objected to that and never put any obstacles in their way,” the official told Gulf News. “Had those Palestinians been wanted by the Israeli security service, they would have been summoned for interrogation or even arrested, but none of that had happened.”

Sources at the Palestinian-Israeli Civil Affairs Liaison Office said that Palestinian representatives at the office had taken up the issue with their Israeli counterparts who refused to discuss it but had earlier promised that the ban would be lifted by the beginning of August.