Tuesday
Russian brides stuck in West Bank
News that visa-free travel could soon be introduced for Russians travelling to Israel and vise-versa has been greeted with a sigh of relief by thousands of Russians stuck in the West Bank. For these Russian citizens, many of them women married to Palestinians, the intifada that began in 2000 left them stranded without identity papers
Oksana Raskornaya has been working and living in the Palestinian Autonomy for eight years. Each morning she travels ten kilometres from her home in Tulkaram town to her clinic. She can’t always get there, though, because she doesn’t have Palestinian papers. “Me and many girls from the former Soviet Union, we don’t have the permanent citizenship of the Palestinian Autonomy. So I cannot cross the checkpoint.
Sometimes when I go to work the Israeli soldiers stop me asking my passport and don’t let me go through,” says Oksana. The West Bank has been an Israeli military zone ever since the intifada, or Palestinian uprising, began in 2000.
Since the Israeli army doesn’t deal with the issue of passports, about 2,000 Russian and former Soviet Union citizens living there are without papers. Irina Ismaile doesn’t work but is forced to stay at home because of the same problem. “The main problem is that we cannot get to Ramallah where the Russian representative office is. We cannot move. Soldiers are on every corner. We need to show them the residency permit of Palestinians that we don’t have,” says Irina( Source)
Oksana Raskornaya has been working and living in the Palestinian Autonomy for eight years. Each morning she travels ten kilometres from her home in Tulkaram town to her clinic. She can’t always get there, though, because she doesn’t have Palestinian papers. “Me and many girls from the former Soviet Union, we don’t have the permanent citizenship of the Palestinian Autonomy. So I cannot cross the checkpoint.
Sometimes when I go to work the Israeli soldiers stop me asking my passport and don’t let me go through,” says Oksana. The West Bank has been an Israeli military zone ever since the intifada, or Palestinian uprising, began in 2000.
Since the Israeli army doesn’t deal with the issue of passports, about 2,000 Russian and former Soviet Union citizens living there are without papers. Irina Ismaile doesn’t work but is forced to stay at home because of the same problem. “The main problem is that we cannot get to Ramallah where the Russian representative office is. We cannot move. Soldiers are on every corner. We need to show them the residency permit of Palestinians that we don’t have,” says Irina( Source)