The Bridge and the Airport

Allenby Bridge 2022

'Mu'ana al-Jiser', ('the suffering on the Bridge'), is a familiar expression among Palestinians. The Bridge is the Allenby Bridge connecting the West Bank to Jordan. Apart from the few able to obtain a permit to make use of Tel Aviv airport, including mostly some politicians and business people, Palestinians from the West Bank have to travel over the Allenby Bridge in order to visit Jordan or take the plane in Amman to Arab and other countries.

During this summer, the situation at the Bridge has been horrible, even more than previous summers when it used to be also bad. It took daughter Jara last week 10.5 hours to cross the Bridge. It was never so awful, she said. One passes three 'stations' - the Jordanian, Israeli and Palestinian.

On the Jordanian side she waited about 1.5 hour with a busy crowd pushing one another to the point that Jara was shouting at others. At the Palestinian side, the last station, it took only a few minutes. On the Israeli side she waited 6.5 hours. At one point the border staff just stopped working and left people waiting for hours, not knowing why.

The check itself it was also unpleasant. One of the Israeli staff denied being able to speak English, let alone Arabic. One piece of luggage was so well-checked it took Jara an additional 2.5 hours of waiting before it arrived.

The stated causes of the wait: insufficient staff and restricted opening hours. But it is also rumoured that Israel allows only a limited number of passengers to pass daily. You can take the so-called VIP-treatment, which means that the waiting time at the three stations is reduced to less than 2 hours. You then have to pay 120-160 dollars per person - prices vary, for me as a foreigner it is 160 dollar. But even the VIP is not as it used to be; it is nowadays also crowded, with waiting rooms full of people and no water in temperatures often deep in the thirties degree Celsius. And of course not everybody is able to pay such an amount on top of the taxes, taxi drives, bus tickets, small bribes, and what have you.

When US President Joe Biden came here a few weeks ago, Israel told him it intended to alleviate the traveling problems by having the Bridge operating 24/7, at the earliest in September. People now speculate that Israel is putting extra pressure upon the West Bank Palestinians with increased waiting times and other difficulties so as have them accept a brand new initiative: Palestinians from the West Bank in the future making use of an airport 20 km north of Eilat, in the far south across the Negev desert.

Ramon is the name of this international Israeli airport, built in 2019. During the last two years it has barely been used due to COVID. Even this year 2022 it has only been used by some dozens of travellers. Israelis are not willing to travel almost 400 km southwards in order to fly. The Israeli Makan radio announced in July that the Israeli Minister Gantz offered allowing Palestinians to use the airport on the condition that Palestinians would withdraw their charge of Israel committing war crimes at the International Criminal Court.

The Palestinian Authority denied that there was any offer made by Israel and in any case is not interested to facilitate this initiative as it wants an airport - a traditional symbol of sovereignty - at Qalandia, near Ramallah in the West Bank. This is an old airport not used since before 1967.

But it seems that Israel is serious about the initiative. Palestinians would have to get a permit to enter Israel, thus increasing Israel's control over them. According to rumours, all Palestinians from the West Bank would have to enter buses at checkpoint 300 between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, subsequently travel some 4-5 hours by bus or taxi, then double-checked near the airport. There they would be able to take a flight to travel to Istanbul and from there to Arab and other countries. But at least they could travel, unlike the people of Gaza, some say.

Let me quote Mary who says the Israelis are clever with this initiative. "They make us so that we are ready to bow for them." Israel profits handsomely. The failed airport is rescued. Israel can tell President Biden that it is doing everything to alleviate daily life burdens of Palestinians while it can enhance its control over West Bank Palestinians. To top it off, it can improve its relations with Turkey.

Palestinians see apartheid. Mary says, "I don't know if I want to live here."

Toine Van Teeffelen is a Pax Christi partner in Bethlehem.