IDF considering PA request to allow Israeli Jews to visit West Bank towns
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
By: ICEJ News

Both sides open to extending 'Jenin model' to other PA-ruled cities

After being banned from entering Palestinian ruled areas since the height of the second intifada in 2002, the IDF is now considering a request from the Palestinian Authority that Israeli Jews be permitted to visit a number of West Bank towns as part of an effort to strengthen the Palestinian economy.

The Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday that IDF officials have told the PA they are willing to consider the move in an effort to bolster the Palestinian economy as well as the political standing of PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrahi, head of the IDF’s Central Command tasked with patrolling the West Bank, paid a rare open visit to Jenin on Monday as a guest of the PA’s local security commander, touring local businesses and meeting with merchants and police officers, marking the first such official visit of its kind in several years.

Jenin was once considered the ‘terror capital’ of the West Bank after at least 28 suicide bombers from the town detonated themselves in Israel from 2000-to-2003, but it has been one of the quietest Palestinian cities for several years now. US-trained PA police have brought law-and-order to the streets of Jenin over the past two years and the Netanyahu government last year allowed Israeli Arabs from the Galilee to begin doing business with local Palestinian merchants. The relaxed measures in Jenin also include allowing Israeli Arabs to visit the PA cities on the weekends to shop and visit family.

Thus many Israeli and PA officials have been pushing the “Jenin model” for other PA cities.

Recently, Israeli tour guides and buses were also allowed to return to Bethlehem and Jericho for the first time in years. The new initiative would allow Israeli Jews to visit Jenin, Jericho and Bethlehem in an effort to further enhance the already buoyant Palestinian economy, create jobs and hopefully ease tensions between the two sides.

“This is possible and something to consider,” a senior IDF officer told the Post. “While there is no guarantee that nothing will happen, these cities are relatively safe and the Palestinians have an interest in proving to us that terrorism is not an option.”

Meanwhile in Gaza, the Israeli government has given initial approval to international organizations for 31 new construction projects in the Strip, including repairs to public infrastructure, private houses and businesses, provided they do not benefit Hamas. The new policy allows building materials into the Strip only if they are being used for humanitarian projects under the supervision of a major international aid agency like UNRWA, the World Bank or USAID, who can guarantee that the materials won’t be used by Hamas for building bunkers or other military infrastructure.