Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon announce a two-year plan to upgrade West Bank crossings, in a bid to make the checkpoints more efficient and secure.
“The plan is designed to increase the number of Palestinian workers who go through the checkpoints, as well as improving their conditions and standing up to the tests of quality and service,” Ya’alon says in a statement.
This plan would also “upgrade the technological level of the [security] measures found at the crossings,” he says.
Ya’alon, believed to be on his way out of the ministry, says the program will decrease the waiting time at crossings by “30 to 50 percent.”
In addition, it will increase the amount of goods that can be transferred by “approximately 30 percent,” he says.
The program will be implemented by the Defense Ministry, Finance Ministry and Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. It is expected to cost some NIS 300 million ($77 million), drawn from COGAT’s funds.
— Judah Ari Gross
Palestinian women try to cross through the Qalandiya checkpoint on their way for Friday prayers at al-Aqsa Mosque, June 26, 2015. (Flash90)
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