Palestinians Want the Option to Use Ramon Airport; Their Leaders Want Them Miserable

Opinion

Then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) and Israeli Intelligence and Transportation Minister Israel Katz (3rdL) cut a red ribbon during the inauguration ceremony of the Ramon International Airport just outside the southern Red Sea resort city of Eilat, Israel January 21, 2019. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun.

Yesterday, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) announced that it joins the Palestinian Authority (PA) in opposing the Israeli plan to allow Palestinians to travel internationally through the Ramon Airport.

Here is one of the reasons it gave:

The passage of Palestinian citizens through this airport is aimed at striking the communicative and emotional depth with our brotherly people in Jordan, and its goal is also to provide support for the Zionist economy, and to confirm the apartheid policy practiced by the enemy against our people. [emphasis added]

You see? Giving Palestinians more options in how to travel, and allowing them to travel from an Israeli airport sitting next to Israeli passengers, is apartheid!

Palestinians on social media have been showing intense interest in using Ramon Airport. They are not at all convinced by the arguments against it given by the PA and other leaders.

One online poll shows that 66% of West Bank respondents were looking forward to traveling via Ramon, while only 29% said that they were against it because of “normalization.” Ramallah Live compared the cost for West Bankers to travel through Jordan with Ramon, and found that the Jordanian fees were triple the cost of Ramon — 180 shekels to 60. This did not include the fees on returning, and paying VIP fees the Allenby Bridge to reduce the number of hours of waiting.

On August 16, the Palestinian minister of transportation said, “We will consider imposing procedures and sanctions against travelers through Ramon Airport, and we urge all Palestinians not to use this airport because it does not represent a Palestinian sovereignty.”

The Palestinian response on Facebook has been withering, with many pointing out that the minister has a VIP pass to travel through Ben-Gurion Airport– and asking why that does not violate Palestinian sovereignty.

And there is another group of Palestinians who demand to be able to use Ramon Airport: Gazans.

The current plan is to only open it for West Bank Palestinians, but it is closer to Gaza, and Gazans would jump at the chance to use that airport rather than try to make it to Cairo, which is very difficult. Some are demanding the right to use Ramon, and given that Israel already vets many of them to work in Israel, this would seem to be a possibility. Commenters there point out the humiliation they go through to even have a chance to travel to Egypt. If for no other reason than PR, Israel should consider allowing those who pass security checks to use that airport as well.

Ramon Airport continues to expose the pure hypocrisy of Palestinian and Arab leaders who, for decades, have made decisions for Palestinians and pretend that these decisions are for their own good. But in the end, they are only for the good of the self-appointed leaders, and Palestinians suffer.

Israel is treating Palestinians with more respect than their own leaders do, and despite all the anti-Israel propaganda, the people know this very well.

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