When Saja Attaiya traveled on July 19 from the Palestinian village of Beit Sira, west of Ramallah, to the Mediterranean Sea, it only took her 30 minutes to get there. Previously, her attempts to visit Jaffa and Tel Aviv had been met with restrictions and checkpoints, as Israel has rarely given travel permits to Palestinians from the West Bank to enter Israel since 2000, especially to young Palestinians.
This year, travel restrictions were eased for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, thus allowing Attaiya, 21, and thousands of Palestinians to cross into Israel and spend time at the beach. Attaiya arrived at her destination at 1 p.m. and stayed on the Mediterranean coast for 12 hours with her fiance Mohammad Flaneh, her brother Taleb and her cousin Mohammad, both 16, as well as thousands of others who were given travel permits for the holiday.