Israeli visa rules trap Palestinians

[Englander]

By Martin Patience
BBC News, Jerusalem

Business consultant Sam Bahour was used to leaving his Palestinian wife and their two young daughters in the West Bank city of Ramallah every few months to renew his tourist visa.

But now Mr Bahour, 41, faces a tough choice. He can leave the West Bank to renew his visa as usual but risks not being allowed back in. Or he can stay in the West Bank, but illegally.

The Israeli authorities have told Mr Bahour that he has received his final tourist visa and must leave the West Bank by 1 October 2006.

"My 12-year-old daughter was planning a party for my birthday in mid-October," he says, sitting in his office in Ramallah. "But now she thinks it's not going to happen."

Mr Bahour is one of thousands of Palestinians and foreigners affected by an Israeli policy preventing visitors from entering the West Bank in the last few months.

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