Pay your debts before entering Israel
Palestine-Israel, Judicial, 2/13/1998

If you are a Palestinian and you owe Israeli firms or merchants money, you will not be allowed to enter Israel.

This decision was taken by an Israeli special ministerial committee which ruled that that permits for Palestinians to enter Israel will only be issued after they pay back their debts. Committee head, Tzahi Hanegbi, who is also minister of justice, said that the nature of economic relations between Israeli and Palestinian businessmen have taken a trend in which Palestinians fail to pay back their debts to their Israeli counterparts.

Hanegbi estimated that Palestinian merchants owe Israelis amounts up to several million dollars and noted that should this measure prove to be ineffective, other means will be used. He refused to go into details.

Palestinians too complain about the nature of economic and trade relations between Israelis and Palestinians. They say that since the signing of the interim agreements in 1994, the Palestinian territories have become markets for Israeli goods whose date of production had expired. Palestinian authorities have been raiding shops and stores in most of the cities on the West Bank and Gaza Strip looking for expired food, mainly canned food.

Palestinians also complained that it is not only them indebted to the Israelis but that Israeli merchants also owe them money and there is no way to trace them back in Israel. "I have had a lengthy relation of trade with merchants in Tel Aviv over the past years. In the worst years of occupation, I could still drive to Tel Aviv and demand my money back. Now, because of the permit problem, I do not have the means to claim my money and I have to rely on third parties, which in general do not serve my interests the way I do," said a wholesale merchant in Ramallah who refused to identify himself. He said he did not want to become known because he also has problems with Palestinian tax authorities which have been trying to monitor his trade.

Previous Stories:
  Israel decided to stop Palestinians from getting into Palestine   (1/16/1998)
  Palestinian debts reach $390 million   (12/4/1997)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search