Palestinian leaders alarmed that Israel wants to improve conditions for Palestinians

What Palestinian leaders want least.

By Hugh Fitzgerald, FrontPage Magazine

In the No-Good-Deed-Goes-Unpunished Department, Israel has decided to allow Palestinians in Gaza to use the Ramon Airport near Eilat for flights abroad. Until now, they have had to use airports in Amman and Cairo, requiring long and expensive trips overland from Gaza. More on the Israeli plans to help the Palestinians, and the angry response from Palestinian officials, can be found here: “Residents of Gaza could soon fly from Israeli airport,” The JC, June 26, 2023:

Residents of the Gaza Strip may soon be able to fly to Turkey via Israel’s Ramon Airport near Eilat.

“The pilot program could start as early as July when two flights are anticipated, Channel 12 reported.

The final decision is subject to approval by the security and political echelons. Gaza sources say the flights will be available to residents ages 35 and older.

Younger Palestinian males are regarded as much greater security risks.

They will be shuttled to the airport from the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip. At present, Gazans travel via the Erez crossing by land to Jordan and fly abroad from there.

Gazans wishing to go abroad now have to endure a long trip that begins at the Erez crossing in Gaza, where they undergo a first security check, then they travel all across Israel to the Allenby Crossing, where they have a long wait, before undergoing a second security check by Jordanian border police. From there they make another trip overland from the border to the airport just outside Amman. The time, and money saved by travelers from Gaza, now able to fly from the Ramon Airport, will be considerable.

The announcement follows a similar one from the Israel Airports Authority in August 2022 that Palestinians from the West Bank would be able to take charter flights from Ramon Airport to Turkey.

The first flight from the airport with Palestinian Arabs on board departed on August 22. Its destination was not Turkey but rather Cyprus.

Elder of Ziyon notes:

While the announcement is not official, Palestinian travel agencies are already advertising the trips.

Right now, for Gazans to travel anywhere, they need to get permission to enter Egypt, which is difficult to get to begin with, and then travel by bus directly to Cairo’s airport – a six hour trip – and then wait hours more for their flights.

The trip from the Gaza crossings to Ramon is about three hours.

Gazans who will now be allowed to fly out from Ramon Airport will thereby cut their overland travel time in half.

Elder of Ziyon continued:

The Palestinian Authority announced that it opposes this and will do whatever it can to block Palestinians from traveling to Ramon Airport, saying that this will hurt relations with Jordan and Egypt, which would lose out on revenues from Palestinians traveling through those countries to get to Amman and Cairo, respectively.

So the PA is more concerned with making sure that both Egypt and Jordan continue to profit from Palestinian travelers, rather than helping those travelers save money by using the Ramon Airport. It intends to block Palestinians – but how? — from using that airport.

The leftist terror groups Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which are closely linked with many “human rights” NGOs, issued condemnations for allowing Gazans to fly to Turkey through Ramon Airport.

Their reasons are a perfect example of the blind hatred that Palestinian leaders have for Israel – so much so that they are eager to make their own people miserable for nebulous political gain.
They called on Palestinians to boycott Ramon airport, saying that Israel is using this as a means to reduce terror from Gaza.

So Israel’s attempt to make things easier for Palestinian travelers from Gaza is a bad thing, because it could lessen their hostility to the Jewish state, and the impulse to sow terror. The cunning Zionists are helping the Palestinians, not out of any real sympathy, but only to decrease terrorism. What a diabolical people!

PFLP political analyst Zulfiqar Swergo said…“The Gaza government must carefully consider the strategic interests of the Palestinian people, and not forget that it is a government of resistance, and that this step will harm the idea of resistance that our people are now strongly adopting in the West Bank, and it must be aware that the ‘neutralization’ of the Gaza Strip is a major blow to the escalation of resistance in the West Bank.”…

The PFLP wants to keep the Palestinians in as deep a state of wretchedness as possible, in order to keep up their “spirit of resistance.” Any attempt by Israel to make their lives easier is misperceived as part of a plot to weaken Palestinian hostility, when it only reflects the decency of the Israelis, who are trying to ameliorate the Palestinian condition, without harming Israel’s security, wherever possible. Opening up Palestinian access to Ramon Airport is one such way.

DFLP political analyst Mahmoud Mardawi complained that “there is an economic goal for the occupation behind this matter, especially since none of the Zionists went to use Ramon Airport when it opened.”

He warned about “the political motives and the affirmation of the apartheid policy that the occupation practices day and night against our people” and called for all Palestinian institutions to “thwart this racist project.”…

In the twisted minds of some Arab analysts, such as DFLP’s Mahmoud Mardawi, Israel is only opening the Ramon Airport to the Palestinians in order to make money from the increase in air traffic at that airport. To the DFLP (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine), it is better that the Palestinians continue to use the distant airports in Cairo and Amman, even if it will cost them far more. The economic well-being of the Palestinian travelers doesn’t matter. What counts is preventing the Zionists from taking Palestinian travel away from fellow Arabs.

Israel can’t win. If it imposes restrictions on the Palestinians – such as limiting Muslim visitors to Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan to women of all ages, male children up to 12 years old, and men over 55 years old, in order to minimize the chances of violent riots — it will be denounced. If it lifts restrictions on Palestinian travelers, as with this new policy of allowing them to use Ramon Airport, it will also be denounced, for trying to weaken the “spirit of resistance,” by making life easier for the Palestinians.

The worse things are for the Palestinians, according to the leaders of the terror groups, the stronger will be their will to resist. So keep them immiserated. It’s for the very best of causes – to destroy the Jewish state and replace it with a 23rd Arab state, the state of “Palestine, that will soon be free/From the river to the sea.”

ArkiaIlan and Asaf Ramon AirportPalestinian AuthorityTravel