Gazans Say Jordan Restricting Movement

Jordan appears to be routinely denying transit permits for Gazans and effectively preventing patients, university students and others with business abroad from leaving the territory.

With the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing — Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world — all but shuttered, Jordan has emerged as a key player in enabling Gazans to travel abroad. Over the past year or so, Israel has begun to allow growing numbers of Gazans to cross through its territory into Jordan, where they can catch flights to their final destinations.

But Gazans can only cross through Israel if they have a special visa from Jordan known as a “no objection” letter. And travelers and human rights groups say that Gazans are experiencing difficulties receiving these permits like never before.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has urged Jordan to facilitate travel for Palestinians from Gaza to third countries.

“Those seeking transit from Gaza are seeking just that — transit,” Ken Roth, executive director of the New York-based rights watchdog, wrote in a letter to Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour in April.

Roth said that before last summer, Jordan would “routinely grant” these transit permits. Then, beginning last August, individuals, lawyers and human rights organizations began to observe “wide scale refusal” by the Jordanians, he wrote.

Human Rights Watch said it has not received a response from Jordan.

But Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani told The Associated Press that there has been no change in the government’s visa policy and that his country, which has a large population of people of Palestinian origin, will do everything it can to facilitate the movement of Gazans.

He called on “other countries to share their responsibilities when it comes to facilitating Palestinians’ right of travel” — an apparent reference to Egypt.

Egypt has kept the Rafah crossing largely closed since 2013, when ties with Hamas worsened after the ouster of Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Last week, Egypt opened the crossing for the first time in nearly three months.

During the two-day opening, only 750 of the more than 30,000 people waiting to leave Gaza managed to exit.

Jordanian officials refused to say how many applications they receive for transit visas from residents in Gaza, or how many are approved or rejected. The Gaza company that helps residents submit applications to Jordan, named “Friends for Express Transportation,” also declined comment.

Speaking to foreign journalists on Monday, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said his government was working with Jordan to find a solution.