With Small Shifts, Israel Eases Restrictions On Some Palestinians

[oberliner]

Early one morning a couple of weeks ago, rheumatologist Anas Muhana got into his 2008 tan Mercedes jeep, turned on the ignition and drove from his home in Ramallah to his work at Al-Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem.

It was the first time he had been allowed to do this in 15 years.

Muhana is Palestinian. His car has a green and white Palestinian license plate. And in 2000, at the start of the second intifada, Israel stopped allowing cars with Palestinian plates to cross checkpoints from the West Bank.

But now, for a select few Palestinians, Israel has eased this restriction. For the first time in a decade and a half, some Palestinian residents of the West Bank can now drive their own cars, with Palestinian license plates, into Israel.

It's part of a series of modest policy changes Israel hopes will improve Palestinian lives and Israeli security.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/05/11/405776640/with-small-shifts-israel-eases-restrictions-on-some-palestinians

[DetlefK]

1. Please forgive me for being cynical.

But tiny, incremental progress that bears no consequences and can be undone any time, that seems more like a PR-ploy to me.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

2. "There will be no Palestinian state..."

-PM Netanyahu.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

3. Quotes from a walking Israeli bigot.

“Palestinians are beasts, they are not human.” — MK Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, Aug 1, 2013. (Hebrew)

“A Jew always has a much higher soul than a gentile, even if he is a homosexual.” — MK Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, Dec 27, 2013. (Hebrew/English)

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

4. Another fresh Israeli bigot in office...

Ayelet Shaked,

“Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism. They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.”

[geek tragedy]

5. "But Muhana is not sure what Israel is trying to accomplish.

"It makes some difference to a very tiny portion of the Palestinian population. But how much difference is this? Very little," he says. "We are still under occupation."