Palestinians bear brunt of rift with Israel

AL-RAM, West Bank — Nassar Salem, a carpenter in this Palestinian suburb of Jerusalem, handed over the form that would normally be enough to get a permit for his pregnant daughter-in-law to visit a hospital on the other side of the Israeli military checkpoint.

But at a crowded storefront where clerks had been brushing aside similar requests all morning, Salem was told that Palestinian officials were no longer accepting applications.

“I’m sorry, you can’t get this processed now,” said a woman behind the counter. “All cooperation with Israel has stopped.”

This month, President Mahmoud Abbas declared an end to long-standing coordination between his governing Palestinian Authority and Israeli officials in response to their plans to start the process of annexing large parts of the occupied West Bank as soon as July 1.

As Palestinians returned to work last week after a long holiday break, they were already beginning to feel the effects of the freeze.

Some permits could still be obtained if applicants directly visited the Israeli civil administration office in the West Bank, people were told. Others, including for emergency transport by ambulance, would be impossible without the involvement of Palestinian officials.

“People’s daily lives are being put on hold,” said Murad Shawamreh as he turned away customers from the business where he helps applicants fill out and file the forms they need to enter Israel.

The refusal to process permits at either of the main Palestinian offices that handle these travel requests was among the first concrete signs that Abbas was following through, at least for now, on his threat to suspend ties. These links date back to agreements the Palestinians signed with Israel and the United States after the Oslo peace accords of the 1990s.

With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planning to bring annexation proposals up for government approval, officials on both sides are bracing for a summer of potential confrontations. The Israeli military plans to conduct war game exercises next week on various conflict scenarios.

“Annexation could be the tipping point where nobody will have any control,” warned Mohammad Mustafa, an economic adviser to Abbas.

The West Bank has enjoyed a decade of relative stability, in part thanks to employment, trade and security ties with Israel. Salaries paid to Palestinian workers in Israel, topping $280 million a month by some estimates, make up one of the West Bank’s largest sources of income. Taxes and customs on imports collected by Israel and transferred to the Palestinian Authority account for 60% of its tax revenue.

Israel, for its part, relies heavily on more than 120,000 Palestinian workers who, before the coronavirus lockdown, crossed the checkpoints for jobs across the Israeli economy. Sixty percent of them work in construction. No immediate disruption is anticipated on that front because most permits are valid for months.

Israeli-Palestinian cooperation also includes high-level contacts between intelligence agencies, which have thwarted terrorist attacks in Israel and protected the Palestinian Authority from its extremist rivals.

There isn’t clear evidence that Abbas has made good on his promise to sever classified intelligence ties. One former Israeli official, speaking off the record, said communications had paused but there hadn’t been a crisis yet to test whether Palestinians were serious about breaking off links.