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![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.karmalised.com\/18palestine.600.gif?resize=600%2C300\" "\\"Rina")
Sam Bahour at the Ramallah shopping center he built. Israel has effectively frozen certain immigration since the uprising began in 2000.<\/center><\/p>\n
Israeli Visa Policy Traps Thousands of Palestinians in a Legal Quandary<\/strong> RAMALLAH, West Bank, Sept. 16 ? Sam Bahour, an American citizen of Palestinian descent, would seem to be the kind of neighbor Israel would welcome.<\/p>\n Mr. Bahour, 41, has a master?s degree in business from Tel Aviv University and runs a successful consulting firm. He developed a gleaming $10 million shopping center in Ramallah, where he has lived for 13 years with his Palestinian wife, Abeer, and their two daughters.<\/p>\n Yet in all that time, Israel has never approved Mr. Bahour?s application for a Palestinian identity document, which would allow him to live permanently in the West Bank with his family. He has had to rely instead on repeated renewals of a three-month tourist visa since he moved from Ohio to Ramallah in 1993. And now Israel says he cannot renew it anymore. [More<\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Palestinian-Americans Say Israel Denies Them Visas<\/strong> Israeli Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabina Haddad says tourist visas are only good for visiting Israel, not for living and working in the Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n “They are working here, lots of them. We asked them, if they are working here, and not in Israel, but in the Palestinian Authority, we asked them to get a work permit,” she said. “It does not matter, if you are from Russia or America. If you want to come to work in Israel, you need a work permit. So, if you are coming to work inside the territories, you need a work permit, too.”<\/p>\n Palestinians say such permits are virtually impossible to get, because they are issued by the Israeli Defense Forces. A force spokesman contacted by VOA, who asked not to be identified, said such permits are only necessary for areas classified as closed military zones – not for an area like Ramallah.<\/p>\n Naser Abdelkarim is a professor of finance at Bir Zeit University in Ramallah. He warns that, if leading Palestinian business people are forced to leave and take their capital with them, the Palestinian private sector could be crippled.<\/p>\n “Two-thirds of the Palestinian labor force is employed in the private sector. Now, with this restriction, I am afraid that private investment will not flow at the level we hoped for,” he said. “That will stop the Palestinian economy from any growth in the future.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n via<\/em> ePalestine<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sam Bahour at the Ramallah shopping center he built. Israel has effectively frozen certain immigration since the uprising began in 2000. Israeli Visa Policy Traps Thousands of Palestinians in a Legal Quandary By GREG MYRE Published: September 18, 2006 RAMALLAH, … Continue reading
\nBy GREG MYRE
\nPublished: September 18, 2006<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
\nBy Jim Teeple
\nJerusalem
\n18 September 2006 | To READ or LISTEN<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n