[News] Israel's new anti-Palestine visa rules restrict students, family and romance

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/demographic-engineering-israels-new-visa-rules-restrict-students-family-and-romance>
Israel's new West Bank visa rules restrict students, family and romance
By MEE staff - September 3, 2022
------------------------------

>From 'apartheid regulations' to 'draconian measures', groups across the
occupied West Bank and Israel are denouncing new policies set to take
effect on Monday

A Palestinian woman holds a baby wearing a cap during a graduation ceremony
at Birzeit University in the West Bank town of Birzeit, near Ramallah
(AFP/File photo)

Published date: 3 September 2022 16:46 UTC | Last update: 2 hours 19 mins ago


Foreigners who have started romantic relationships with Palestinians
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine> in the occupied West
Bank must register with the Israeli
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel> defence ministry within 30
days, according to a controversial set of new rules aimed at isolating the
Palestinian population.

Under the regulations, first published in February
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-lecturers-allowed-teach-universities>
to a storm of protest, a foreigner who marries a Palestinian ID holder will
be required to leave the country after 27 months for a period of at least
half a year. Foreign spouses visiting the West Bank will be limited to
three- or six-month permits.

The rules are part of a wider crackdown on foreigners and diaspora
Palestinians wanting to live, visit, work or study in the West Bank.

'This is micromanaging, with the purpose to damage the Palestinian social
fabric' *- Sam Bahour, Palestinian-American businessman*

Human rights groups in Palestine and Israel have denounced the policies,
which are set to take effect on Monday.

The regulations were laid out in a 97-page document and include new
restrictions on Palestinian universities
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-lecturers-allowed-teach-universities>,
such as a cap of 150 student visas and 100 foreign lecturers. These rules
include universities that are in Area A of the West Bank, a fraction of
territory that, under the Oslo Accords, is supposed to be under complete
Palestinian control.

Israel places no such limits on how many visiting students and foreign
lecturers can attend Israeli institutions. The measures will be a major
blow to student exchange programmes operated by the European Union, such as
the Erasmus+ programme, among others.

Businesspeople and aid organisations have also denounced the new rules,
saying they will be severely affected, as the policies place strict
limitations on the duration of visas and visa extensions, in many cases
preventing people from working or volunteering in the West Bank for longer
than a few months.

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-us-lawmakers-push-against-inclusion-visa-waiver-programme>

US progressive lawmakers push against Israeli inclusion in visa waiver
programme

"This is micromanaging, with the purpose to damage the Palestinian social
fabric," said Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American businessman who moved to
the West Bank from Ohio in 1995.

Under the regulations, foreign passport holders - including Palestinians
living abroad - will also no longer be able to obtain visas on arrival and
instead have to apply for them at least 45 days in advance.

In most cases, foreigners visiting the West Bank will no longer be able to
arrive via Israel's main airport near Tel Aviv, and will instead be
required to enter through the land crossing between Jordan and the West
Bank.

"This is about demographic engineering of Palestinian society and isolating
Palestinian society from the outside world," Jessica Montell, executive
director of the Israeli non-governmental organisation HaMoked, told the BBC
<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-62730164.amp>.

HaMoked has petitioned the Israeli High Court against the regulations.

"They make it much more difficult for people to come and work in
Palestinian institutions, volunteer, invest, teach and study."

Canadian doctor Benjamin Thomson, is also one of the 19 plaintiffs involved
in the legal challenge. He said he is concerned about how the Israeli move
will disrupt the work of health professionals.

"These draconian measures will severely impact their work, and impair the
lives of the Palestinian people," said Thomson, director of the Keys of
Health project aimed at rebuilding healthcare in the Palestinian
territories.

The new rules do not apply to those visiting Jewish-only settlements in the
occupied West Bank.

The PLO, the umbrella body representing the Palestinian people, has said
that the rules bring in "apartheid regulations that impose a reality of one
state and two different systems".
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20220903/42848470/attachment.htm>