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The King Hussein Bridge, the only point of entry or exit from the occupied West Bank, will probably experience severe overcrowding again this summer. Students and families whose breadwinner works in the Gulf, Europe or the Americas usually come home to spend the summer holidays with their relatives in Palestine. And since the King Hussein Bridge is the only means of reaching Nablus, Bethlehem, Hebron and hundreds of villages in the West Bank, the importance of easy and dignified access becomes paramount at the hot, heavily used crossing on the border with Jordan.
Yet travelers face many problems, including extremely long delays and humiliating practices, when making the crossing, which most hate to do but have no other choice. While the vast majority of the problems lie on the Israeli side, which has little interest in making life easier for Palestinians, there is also plenty of room for improvement on the Jordanian side.
The single biggest problem for travelers is the limited opening hours imposed by Israel. At one point, in March 2023, Israeli authorities, under continual pressure from the then-US ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, agreed to open the bridge around the clock, 24/7.
Travel across the King Hussein Bridge is regularly described as the most humiliating issue affecting all Palestinians, and many visitors as well.
Daoud Kuttab
But after the events of Oct. 7, 2023, the bridge hours were limited. Israel’s justification for this was that many bridge workers served, by law, in Israeli army reserve units until the age of 55 and had been recalled, so staffing levels at the bridge had to be reduced. However, this justification continued even after the ceasefire agreements in Gaza and Lebanon. Meanwhile, border-crossing points heavily used by Israeli Jews were somehow not affected by the war.
A recent document issued by the Israeli Airport Authority, which as well as being responsible for civilian airports is charged with regulating all international border crossings, exposes a layered, discriminatory pattern that depends on which border crossing is used by which group of persons seeking to travel.
The opening hours at crossings used by Israeli Jews are longer than at those used by Palestinian citizens of Israel. The hours are even more restricted at border crossings used by Palestinians from the West Bank, and the worst hours and conditions of all are at the Rafah border crossings used by Palestinians in Gaza.
Ben Gurion Airport is open 24/7. So is the Taba crossing on the border with Egypt, which is used almost exclusively by Israeli Jews wishing to spend vacation time on the beaches of the Sinai Peninsula.
The Wadi Arabah crossing into Jordan, which some Israelis use to visit Aqaba and Petra, is also open seven days a week but only until 8 p.m. each day. The northern crossing near the cities of Irbid in Jordan and Beit She’an in Israel, often referred to as the Sheikh Hussein Bridge, is largely used by Arab citizens of Israel. It is closed on Saturdays and open only until 4 p.m. on Fridays.
The most heavily used crossing, the King Hussein Bridge, known in Israel as the Allenby Bridge, is also closed on Saturdays, and open only until 1 p.m. on Fridays and 3 p.m. the rest of the week.
The fees for exiting the King Hussein Bridge from the Israeli-controlled side are more than double those of other crossings. A recent visitor said it cost the equivalent of $80 per person, compared with $35 at all other crossing points. East Jerusalemites also have to pay an additional $95 fee for a one-time exit permit. Jordan charges the equivalent of about $14 to enter the country.
Having to spend hours waiting at the border on buses with one’s family without sufficient access to water or toilet facilities makes the trip even more humiliating. And while the Japanese government helped build a modern bridge over the little remaining water in the Jordan River, little has been done to upgrade the Jordanian facilities at the crossing.
Jordan has called for border crossings to remain open around the clock. In general, the experience on the Jordanian side is much better than on the Israeli side but it is sometimes unable to handle the sheer volume of incoming visitors and returnees.
The handling of luggage on the Jordanian side is also chaotic and often humiliating, as officials check every single item entering the country. The provided luggage carts are at least four decades old, the ground is not level enough for the carts or cases with wheels to move smoothly, and unregulated workers who offer to help with luggage, and expect to be paid for doing so, make the experience unpleasant.
In recent months, Jordan, in cooperation with a local company that has a monopoly on the bus service, launched an online platform through which people can register for VIP service at the border. When the crossing is very busy, however, the available spots fill up very quickly. An early problem of mass purchases by people who would sell the reservations on for a profit was resolved by requiring that reservations include a name and passport details.
Travel across the King Hussein Bridge is regularly described as the most humiliating issue affecting all Palestinians, and many visitors as well. Officials from the Palestinian government, who receive VIP service and do not pay to use the crossing, fail to raise the issue during public or private meetings with world leaders.
In fact, no officials, Palestinian, Jordanian or Israeli, gives the issue of crossing the bridge, in either direction, the kind of attention it requires. And while American officials in Amman, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv can do a lot, as Ambassador Nides did, the issue is not a high priority for them.
- Daoud Kuttab is an award-winning Palestinian journalist and former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. He is the author of “State of Palestine Now: Practical and Logical Arguments for the Best Way to Bring Peace to the Middle East.” X: @daoudkuttab