June 23 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United States and Israel will begin a pilot program next month whereby Palestinians with US citizenship will be able to enter the West Bank through Ben Gurion International Airport, without the usual detours they are forced to take.
Right now, a Palestinian American has to enter the West Bank through the Allenby Pass, east of Jericho. Only the approximately 30,000 Palestinians who arrive directly into the occupied territory for humanitarian reasons are exempt from this diversion.
The implementation of this program was an essential condition for the United States to include Israel in its visa waiver system as of October or November of this year, reports the newspaper ‘Yedioth Aharonoth’.
Israel, it should be remembered, has the authority to deny entry to Ben Gurion to any Palestinian American if it perceives them to pose a threat to national security.
The United States asks Israel, on the other hand, to enter the country without restrictions under the guarantee that any security examination of the person in question has already been carried out on US soil before their departure.
