Palestine Passport | The Palestinian passport is issued by the Palestinian National Authority to facilitate the international travel process for Palestinians based on the Palestinian self-government agreement in accordance with the Oslo Accords signed on September 13, 1993.
After the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority in 1994 on a part of historical Palestine, Palestinian citizen in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was granted a green passport, and a diplomatic passport was granted to the supreme political, economic, religious, and security leaders, and in 2008 it was decided to change the ordinary passport to black with Increase its shelf life to 5 years.
It was announced at the beginning that it is allowed to obtain a Palestinian passport for anyone who presents a Palestinian birth certificate, but the matter is not clear yet is currently allowed to obtain a regular Palestinian passport for those who have a Palestinian identity card.
While those residing outside Palestine need to present a power of attorney issued by an official authority Such as an embassy, a competent court, or a notary public, and it is known that the issuance of Palestinian passports is restricted to the procedures imposed by the Israeli occupation based on what was permitted by the Oslo agreement.
Read more: Palestine 1967 Border – Palestinian Narrative
History of Palestinian Passport
In the period between 1924-1948, the term “Palestinian passport” referred to the travel documents available to residents of Palestine during the British Mandate period, and these passports bore the name (British passport, Palestine) and were issued by the High Commissioner for Palestine, and on May 15, 1948.
All these passports became invalid due to the end of the British mandate over Palestine.
In the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, residents of Palestine were allowed to obtain a Jordanian passport and an Israeli passport, based on the fact that “whoever remained in Palestine after the 1948 war is an official citizen of it who is entitled to obtain a passport.”
As for the Palestinians who fled or fled to Syria and Lebanon And Egypt became stateless, especially since Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon did not allow them to obtain their nationality and integrate with it as official citizens.
In the period between 1949-1959, the All-Palestine Government under the Egyptian administration issued “Palestine All” passports to Palestinians residing in the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
From April 3, 1949, until April 3, 1950, they lived under the Jordanian administration with their Palestinian nationality. In 1950, King Hussein bin Talal of Jordan announced the annexation of the West Bank to the East Bank, forming the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Thus, the Palestinians became Jordanian citizens who were entitled to obtain a Jordanian passport.
After the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel seized what was left of Palestine, occupying the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Nevertheless, the Palestinians continued to have the right to obtain Jordanian passports and their right to live in Jordan.
The Palestinian refugees living in Jordan were considered official Jordanian citizens, with no difference between them and Jordanians themselves.
On July 31, 1988, King Hussein bin Talal of Jordan announced the disengagement between Transjordan and the West Bank, and since that date, the residents of the West Bank no longer enjoy Jordanian nationality, but despite that, they were granted temporary Jordanian passports that are valid for two years only.
On April 2, 1995, two years after the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian National Authority began issuing passports in the autonomous areas. These passports were green in color and had a validity of 3 years. They also contained personal identification numbers issued by the Israeli Civil Administration.
On August 12, 2008, it was announced that the issuance of new black-colored passports with a validity period of 5 years instead of 3 years and containing 48 pages was announced. Resulting from renewal, especially for citizens residing abroad and citizens who travel a lot.
The Palestinian National Authority is offering bids regarding the issue of printing Palestinian passports, as the new passports were printed in Germany at the beginning, but now they are printed in the National Press in France, and on August 12, 2008, the number of people holding Palestinian passports since the Palestinian Authority took over in 1994 reached Until that date (1,995,816) citizens, i.e. nearly two million Palestinian passports.
