A Defense Ministry body responsible for liaising with the Palestinians has still not announced any permits for Palestinian Christians in the Gaza Strip to visit Jerusalem or the West Bank for Easter this year.
Most Christians will celebrate Easter, a holiday marking Jesus’s resurrection, on Sunday, but some Orthodox Christian communities, who follow a different calendar, will mark it on April 28.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced on Tuesday that it would issue 200 permits for Palestinian Christians in the coastal enclave over 55 years old to travel abroad through the Allenby border crossing between the West Bank and Israel for Easter, but made no mention about whether it would allow Christians in the Strip to visit the West Bank and Jerusalem.
COGAT has not respond to a request for comment.
A Palestinian Authority official in charge of requesting permits for Palestinian Christians in Gaza from COGAT, who asked to remain nameless, tells The Times of Israel that no one has received permission to travel to the West Bank or Israel for Easter.
— Adam Rasgon
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
— Gabriella Jacobs, multimedia journalist
Support our work
Support our work
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You're a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
