🚨 BREAKING: Apartheid and de facto annexation in practice
1. Israel changes its policy of entry and residence of foreigners into the West Bank to further complicates entry restrictions. Even among foreign nationality holders, Israel racially discriminates against Palestinians🧵
1. Israel changes its policy of entry and residence of foreigners into the West Bank to further complicates entry restrictions. Even among foreign nationality holders, Israel racially discriminates against Palestinians🧵
2. The new 97- page ordinance entitled: "Procedure for Entry and Residence for Foreigners in Judea and Samaria Area" replaces the current 4-page Ordinance No. 202, entitled: "Policy of Entry of Foreigners into the West Bank Territories", and will become effective on 22 May 2022.
3. The new, more expansive entry rules represent a clear attempt to restrict, track and trace the travel of foreign nationals to the occupied Palestinian territories, control Palestinian population growth & keep data on the land claims of Palestinians holding foreign nationality.
4. The new rules no longer treat the occupied West Bank as a separate geographic unit from Israel. Terminology such as entry to Israel for the purpose of “transit” to the West Bank is dispensed and instead, entry requirements refer to travel to “Judea & Samaria” or the “Area”.
5. It further complicates and formalizes written and unwritten entry restrictions for foreigners wishing to visit, do business, reunite and reside with their Palestinian families, work or volunteer in the occupied West Bank, or study or teach at Palestinian academic institutions.
6. The information Palestinian travellers (with a foreign passport) must provide on the visa pre-approval application includes the names and national ID numbers of their first-degree relatives, names and ID numbers for others with whom they will stay or may visit.
7. Alarmingly, they must also state whether they own property or stand to inherit property in the West Bank. No reason is offered for why this information is necessary in order to process the entry application. Dispossession?
8. The new rules differentiate between travellers visiting Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and those visiting Jewish Israeli settlers. Only those visiting Palestinians must obtain pre-approval for their visits and provide the aforementioned information.
9. Those seeking to teach or study in the “Palestinian academe,” defined to include colleges and universities located in Israeli-annexed occupied East Jerusalem, are subject to quotas and other restrictions on the academic coursework.
10. A quota of 150 foreign students may study at Palestinian colleges and universities but only in approved disciplines. YES, Israel's Apartheid regime wants to decide what the Palestinians are/aren't allowed to study! Domination?
11. In contrast, those wishing to study at Israeli academic institutions, whether within Israel or inside the occupied West Bank, may apply for an A/2 Temporary Resident visa & aren't subject to quotas or restrictions on the disciplines they can study. Apartheid, what Apartheid?
12. Holders of a postgraduate degree may teach in Palestinian institutions for only one semester in an academic year and are barred from reapplying to teach for nine months. If the teacher holds a doctorate and Israel deems them to be a “distinguished” lecturer who would ...
13. ... “contribute[] significantly to learning, the Area’s economy, or to advancing regional cooperation and peace,” then they may stay for longer periods of time though there is a quota of 100 foreign distinguished lecturers.
14. These rules are very concerning as they represent an expression of Israel’s intention to de facto annexe the entirety of the West Bank while at the same time maintaining military rule over the Palestinians living there. De facto Annexation.
15. Palestinian and Jewish holders of another nationality are treated differently based on their racial background. For example, a Palestinian American is treated differently than a Jewish American wishing to visit family or stay in the occupied West Bank.
16. The information Israel gathers from Palestinian relating to their property in the occupied West Bank has no reasonable relationship to their entry and is likely to be used to adversely affect their vested and nonvested property interests given Israel’s settlement enterprise.
17. Personal information on the traveller and their family and friends is likely to be used in Israel’s mass surveillance and data collection project known as “Blue Wolf” which will be used at border crossings and during the pre-approval process to deny travellers entry.
18. Palestinian academic institutions in East Jerusalem and the West Bank will be denied students and faculty that enrich campuses and build bridges with universities abroad. The loss of foreign student tuition will also impact the financial health of the universities.
19. Businesspeople and investors, particularly those of Palestinian descent, will be discouraged from activities in the occupied West Bank because of the intrusive information.
22. Journalists will be denied free travel to do their work and may incur greater expenses and costs at having to only use one port of entry.
23. The new rules support the entrenchment of Israel's colonial regime of institutionalised racial discrimination against Palestinians, including its two-tiered legal system in which one’s ethno-religious identity informs their relationship with the state. This is APARTHEID.
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