“Shalom, ladies and gentlemen. We’ve decided that we can dialogue directly, and I’m glad I was given an opportunity to address you personally.” This was the opening line of Maj. Gen. Yoav (Poli) Mordechai, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), in his first live video chat with Palestinians on the Facebook page Al-Monsiq (Arabic for “The Coordinator”). The Facebook page was set up in March 2015 to improve communications between residents of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on issues under COGAT’s purview, both relating to individual matters and to those of the Palestinian public in general. Mordechai is involved with the daily routine of more than 2.5 million Palestinians in the [Hamas-controlled] Gaza Strip and West Bank.

In mid-November, Al-Monsiq’s 80,000 Palestinian followers were asked to send in questions for Mordechai. Surprisingly, all those who did, including residents of the Gaza Strip who are banned by Hamas from direct contact with Israelis, identified themselves by name in seeking solutions to their many problems. Gaza has been under siege since 2007, and the West Bank is experiencing a severe economic downturn. So as not to anger the Palestinian authorities tasked with conveying residents’ appeals to Israel, Mordechai explained that relations with the Palestinian Authority (PA) are excellent, and occasionally even heaped praise on the PA and its coordination with Israel.

Throughout the 30-minute chat, hundreds of participants reacted with “likes” and openly addressed the security, diplomatic and economic situation; some even wrote their impressions of the personality of Mordechai, who spoke to them in Arabic. One of the main messages Mordechai sought to deliver was that “if you are asked to pay someone for an exit permit [from Gaza or the West Bank] to Israel, don’t pay.” Tough economic times and many Palestinians’ growing needs to seek a livelihood in Israel have spawned a flourishing industry of fake documentation and extortion by middlemen who charge poverty-stricken Palestinians high fees for obtaining entry permits. Mordechai told the participants that he had received a complaint from the PA to the effect that Israeli employers or their representatives are trading in permits to Israel. The general said that a joint Israeli-Palestinian committee had been established to find ways to put a stop to the extortion. But he did not provide a solution for those who would be shunted to the end of the line if they heed his advice and refuse to pay the exorbitant fees to the middlemen.

“I am happy to report that the number of Palestinians working in Israel these days is the highest since the year 2000 [when the second intifada broke out]. Some 75,000 permits have been granted,” he said. Mordechai even added that Israel has an additional quota of 10,000 permits that can be issued immediately, and urged the Facebook users to apply through the PA.