A delegation of North American religious tourists was banned from visiting the West Bank recently upon their arrival to Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv. Israeli authorities at the airport forbade them from entering the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of the West Bank without an Israeli-issued military entry permit, as first reported by Amira Hass of Haaretz.
The visitors, US Christian clerics who came to Israel and Palestine to collaborate with Christian communities in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, were forced to sign an agreement with the Israeli authorities guaranteeing that they would not enter territories under Palestinian civil and military control (Area A) without explicit authorization from the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the de-facto governing body of Israel’s occupation in the West Bank .... http://www.palestinemonitor.org
