The staff of Israel’s Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria is unusually busy this month. To mark Ramadan and especially Eid al-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of the fast, they are issuing hundreds of thousands of permits to Palestinians from the West Bank who want to visit Israel and vacation there. Palestinian border crossings in every zone are opened to just about anyone who submits a formal request and passes Israel’s security inspection. Buses full of tourists leave the cities of the West Bank every morning and drive straight to Israel’s vacation sites or to relatives living in the country’s Arab towns.
This policy of opening border crossings during holidays was first initiated and implemented a year ago by the chief of the Central Command, Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon. Back then Alon claimed, and rightfully so, that given the decline in violence and the positive general atmosphere in the territories, there were no grounds to prevent tens of thousands of families from the West Bank from visiting Israel for reasons of security. On the contrary, Alon believed that these holiday outings would offer the people of the West Bank a new perspective on Israeli society, and that the encounter with Israelis could be a significant step toward re-establishing trust between the two peoples.
