Palestine, State of

Aevamo’s reading

The State of Palestine does not operate its own border crossings; every foreigner entering the West Bank passes through an Israeli-controlled crossing (Allenby Bridge or Ben Gurion airport), and the Israeli COGAT 'Procedure for Entry and Residence of Foreigners in the Judea and Samaria Area' (61 pages, revision 21 December 2022) is the operative instrument that creates the entry obligation a traveller faces: it grants or refuses the visit permit, sets the three-month cap, and routes each nationality to a crossing application, an Israeli representative office, or a Palestinian Authority permit. The Palestinian Ministry of Interior's own statement (pa-moi-entry) creates the parallel obligation for the Gaza Strip and defines the regime's scope ('foreigners, non-Palestinians'), which places PSE holders outside the foreigner regime.

The COGAT procedure is the operative instrument for entry into the Judea and Samaria area (the West Bank), and its whole permit and advance-authorisation regime attaches to 'foreigners', a term it defines to exclude a citizen or resident of Israel. An Israeli passport holder is therefore outside the regime that the visa-free and visa-required rows describe: no B/2 permit, no ETA-IL, no advance application and no stay cap is imposed on them by the instrument that governs the crossings.