Israel Tries to Make Haj Trip Less Burdensome for Israeli Arabs and Palestinians

Since at least 2022, when Yair Lapid was Prime Minister, Israel been trying to persuade the Saudis to allow direct flights from Israel to Saudi Arabia for Israeli Arabs and Palestinians wanting to make the Haj. Making the Haj — which includes, most memorably, walking seven times widdershins round the Magic Wonderstone — is the solemn duty that every physically and financially able Muslim must fulfill at least once in his life. Israel wants to make it less expensive and burdensome for all the Muslims, Israeli and Palestinian, living “from the river to the sea.” This is one more way that the Zionists are obviously not quite so unfeeling and wicked as they are depicted in the Arab media. More on this attempt can be found here: “Israel says it is discussing possible direct Haj flights to Saudi Arabia,” Reuters, May 3, 2023:

Israel voiced hope on Wednesday [May 3] that Saudi authorities would admit direct flights for its Muslim citizens who want to make the Haj pilgrimage, which takes place next month, in what would mark another step toward normalizing relations.

Saudi Arabia signaled approval for Israel’s US-sponsored forging of ties with Gulf neighbors, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in 2020 but has held off on following suit, saying Palestinian goals for statehood should be addressed first.

Any such prospects have been further clouded, however, by Riyadh’s strains with US President Joe Biden, its recent fence-mending with regional rival Iran – a foe of Israel – and the rise of Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right Israeli government.

Netanyahu’s centrist predecessor, Yair Lapid, said on March 10 that, as prime minister last year, he secured Saudi consent for what would be the first direct Hajj flights from Israel, some 18% of whose population are Muslim.

Possibly Yair Lapid misunderstood the Saudis, who may have offered encouraging words on the possibility of direct Haj flights from Tel Aviv, but not meant them to be taken as signifying a done deal. Or perhaps the Saudis did agree, but then simply changed their mind, as a way to express their displeasure with Lapid’s successor, Benjamin Netanyahu.

When would direct flights begin to Saudi Arabia?

Asked whether the direct flights would happen for next month’s pilgrimage to the holy Saudi city of Mecca, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said a request had been submitted.

“This issue is under discussion. I cannot tell you if there is any progress,” he said in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio. “But with that, I am optimistic that we can advance peace with Saudi Arabia.”

The Biden administration last June predicted there would be direct charter flights from Israel to Saudi Arabia for the Haj. But a senior US official briefed on the matter told Reuters on Wednesday that it was “unclear” if the flights would go ahead.

Muslims from Israel and the Palestinian territories currently travel to Mecca through third-party countries, which can spell additional expense and bother.

It is the Saudis, not the Israelis, who prevent Haj pilgrims from flying to Saudi Arabia from the airport in Tel Aviv. As of now, those pilgrims – Israeli Arabs and Palestinians – must go overland to the airport in Amman, and from there fly to Saudi Arabia. This adds about 10 hours to the journey, going to, and coming from, the Amman airport. And that journey, by bus from Israel, also adds to the expense of the trip. Israel is doing nothing more sinister than trying to make things easier for both Israeli Arabs and the Palestinians. It does not expect, and will not receive, any gratitude for this effort.

Assuming that Saudi Arabia finally grants permission for such flights, the international media will describe the Kingdom’s approval in the context of a possible “warming” of relations between the Kingdom and Israel, with breathless speculation about whether Saudi Arabia, having recently engaged in a rapprochement with Iran, is now pivoting to show it can at the same time have warmer relations with Israel. No one will point out that Israel has been trying for more than two years to ease the burden both of its Muslim citizens, and of the Palestinians, the very people who have been trying to harm the Jews of Israel.

The same media disinterest in Israel’s effort to make travel to Mecca less expensive and burdensome for Israeli Arabs and Palestinians has been shown in the failure to cover what ought to be a major story: Israel’s increase in work permits for Palestinians both in Gaza, where 17,000 have been provided with such permits, and in the West Bank, where more than 125,000 – 90,000 permits for work in Israel, 25,000 permits for work in the settlements — have now been granted. These permits allow Palestinians to work in Israel, earning salaries that are up to ten times more than what they would earn in Gaza, and seven times more than what they would earn from Palestinian employers in the West Bank. For many Palestinians, these high wages earned in Israel and the settlements allow them to support not just their immediate, but also their extended, families. These work permits are truly a lifeline. Yet when have you ever seen a story in the international media about this Israeli effort to help boost, so spectacularly, the Palestinians’ domestic well-being?