Published on : Monday, November 12, 2018
The decision is the latest in a series of measures taken by the Saudi Kingdom limiting Palestinian pilgrims’ access to Islam’s holiest site.
In the month of September, Palestinian refugees living in Jordan and Lebanon, along with Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, were also banned from getting visas to Saudi Arabia.
It is estimated that the increased travel restrictions affect some 3 million Palestinians across these states, who have no access to any other form of travel documents allowing them to go to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia, like most other Arabian states, does not have official diplomatic relations with Israel, meaning Israeli citizens cannot travel to Saudi Arabia.
A loophole, however, established by Jordan in 1978, has allowed for Palestinian citizens of Israel to travel to Jordan to obtain temporary Jordanian passports for $70, which they then use to travel to Saudi Arabia. The same temporary passports are used by some 350,000 Palestinians in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem and 634,000 Palestinians living in Jordan for travel purposes. The move does not directly affect the millions of Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, who carry passports issued by the Palestinian Authority (PA), and can travel on those passports to Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, some 450,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are also to be affected by the move. Middle East Eye reported that following a decision by the Saudi Foreign Ministry in Riyadh, officials from the Saudi Consulate in Beirut had informed tourism companies in Lebanon that no Hajj and Umrah visas would be issued to Palestinians on their refugee travel documents.
The Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, who do not enjoy several basic rights and are prohibited from working in as many as 20 professions, hold refugee travel documents issued by the Lebanese government, and do not have access to any other form of travel documents allowing them to go to Saudi Arabia.
The latest Saudi move comes against the backdrop of increasingly normalized relations between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf states. A report last week by the Washington Post claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked senior officials in the Trump White House to continue supporting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman following the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In April of this year, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said Israelis to have the right on their own land and that formal relations between Israel and the kingdom could be mutually beneficial.
The softened rhetoric of the two leaders towards each other, coupled with claims that Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner has been working to encourage an coalition between Israel and Saudi Arabia, has led critics to believe the new Saudi policy against holders of temporary Jordanian passports is part of a larger effort between the Kingdom and Israel to put an end to the Palestinian identity and the right of return for refugees.