Palestinian-Israeli-Jordanian Border Made to Violate Palestinian Human Rights

The international crossings are a preliminary image of the state and its treatment towards tourists and citizens alike, and the international borders separating the occupied Palestinian territories and Jordan are controlled by the Israeli occupation in cooperation with Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

The distance between the Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian bridge is only one kilometer, but sometimes it takes a whole day to cross it, as the traveler Palestinian citizen in the West Bank across has no alternative to communicate with the outside world except through this bridge and then through Queen Alia Airport International Airport in Jordan.

Few people are allowed to travel through Ben Gurion International Airport (Israel’s official airport), and these are usually businessmen and members of the Palestinian Authority and security services who enjoy good relations with Israel.

Palestinian citizens then are subjected to inspection and interrogation three times, starting with the Palestinian bridge for registration, payment of departure fees, and inquiries by the security services if the traveler was a former prisoner in Israel or the Palestinian Authority, and in case his departure is approved, he waits in a specific hall until the Israeli side agrees to receive him at the Israeli bridge, where he usually gets searched in many checkpoints before he reaches the Israeli bridge hall.

In many cases, the traveler may be subjected to interrogation by the Israeli intelligence on the bridge, then he waits for long hours, then a decision is made to either allow him to leave or return to the Palestinian bridge under flimsy pretexts, which costs the traveler money and time. He may also lose his ticket in the case he had booked a flight, in addition to the possibility of being arrested by the Israeli army forces and transferred to investigation centers in Israel and imprisoned later.

If the traveler was a student at an international university, he will lose his place as a student there. The same goes for many patients with serious diseases and chronic who travel to receive treatment abroad, which requires immediate and emergency treatment, otherwise, they may lose their lives, which had happened to many Palestinian citizens.

If the Palestinian citizen finally manages to leave the Israeli bridge towards the Jordanian bridge, he will be subjected to the same procedures of the two previous bridges, and he will be returned to the Israeli bridge, which means that the Israelis investigate him and find out the reason why he was returned by the Jordanians, as well as the Palestinians later on.

This suffering applies to everyone with a Palestinian ID or those of Palestinian origin and living abroad.

In many cases, when the Palestinian citizen files cases before the Israeli judiciary for their denial of traveling and when they obtain permission to leave, the Israeli security coordinates with the Jordanian security to return him from the Jordan Bridge under claims that he has security problems in Jordan.

The Palestinian citizen then gets into a bigger problem, as crossing the Jordanian bridge needs someone to mediate with the Jordanian intelligence and often pay a bribe to an officer to allow him to leave, with the oral approval of the Israeli side.

These arbitrary measures have turned the West Bank into a large prison for citizens who can only leave if the three authorities, Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian allowed him to. Of course, this usually does not happen to the majority of Palestinian citizens who are treated as terrorists until proven otherwise.

These complications and the serious violation of the rights of the Palestinian citizens require international actions to put pressure on the three authorities, to apply measures that respect human rights and uphold them.

We call on these countries to change their policies to allow Palestinians to enjoy their right to the freedom of movement, guaranteed under international laws.

We also call for the international human rights organizations in these countries to put pressure to provide decent humane treatment for the Palestinian citizen leaving their homeland to the outside world.