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Magnetic card system restricts Palestinian visits to Jerusalem

Israel is issuing magnetic travel permits to Palestinians that only permit a certain number of visits to Jerusalem and Israel each year.
Palestinians wait to show their permits to Israeli security officers as they make their way to attend the fourth Friday prayer of Ramadan in Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque, at an Israeli checkpoint in the West bank city of Bethlehem July 10, 2015. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma - RTX1JTWR

One of the leading sources of anger among Palestinians under occupation is restriction on their movement. Palestinians living in the West Bank cannot travel to the Gaza Strip, and Palestinians in Gaza are normally not allowed to leave Gaza. Travel from the occupied territories to neighboring Jordan and Egypt also involves various kinds of restrictions. After the intervention of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egypt opened the Rafah crossing on May 9 for two days, but only a very small percentage of the 30,000 Palestinians wanting to exit the Gaza Strip were allowed to do so. A reported 1,221 Palestinians who had been stuck outside Gaza were allowed to return.

In a January bulletin, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that in the final quarter of 2015, Israeli forces had established 91 new checkpoints, further obstructing Palestinians' freedom of movement throughout the West Bank. For Palestinians living near Jerusalem, the issue of travel to the holy city for work or for family visits is of great importance. When Israel unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, and when it built the wall through the West Bank, it isolated Jerusalem from its environs, including the towns of Ramallah, Bethlehem and Abu Dis.

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