One of its reasons it gave:
The passage of Palestinian citizens through this airport is aimed at striking the communicative and emotional depth with our brotherly people in Jordan, and its goal is also to provide support for the Zionist economy, and to confirm the apartheid policy practiced by the enemy against our people.You see? Giving Palestinians more options in how to travel, and allowing them to travel from an Israeli airport sitting next to Israeli passengers, is apartheid!
Palestinians on social media have been showing intense interest in using Ramon Airport. They are not at all convinced by the arguments against it given by the Palestinian Authority and other leaders.
One online poll shows 66% were looking forward to traveling via Ramon, while only 29% said that they were against it because of "normalization."
Ramallah Live compared the cost for West Bankers to travel through Jordan with Ramon, and found that the Jordanian fees were triple the cost of Ramon - 180 shekels to 60. This did not include the fees on returning, paying VIP fees the Allenby Bridge to reduce the number of hours of waiting.
On August 16, the Palestinian minister of transportation said, "We will consider imposing procedures and sanctions against travelers through Ramon Airport, and we urge all Palestinians not to use this airport because it does not represent a Palestinian sovereignty."
The Palestinian response on Facebook has been withering, with many pointing out that he personally has a VIP pass to travel through Ben Gurion Airport - why is that not violate Palestinian sovereignty?
There are nearly 10,000 comments like these:
Yes, I swear to God, we hate youWe wish to hear a statement that will benefit the people!!!With the honor of your sister, shut up and beat yourself upSpit on you and your authorityYou are all illegitimate and your origin is not known, bastardsI swear to God that penalties and procedures must be against the officials who left the people to humiliate on the crossings. I am with the citizen who travels from anywhere to preserve his dignity.
Others point out the awful conditions and humiliation at the Jordanian crossings, asking how travel through Jordan helps "Palestinian sovereignty."
And there is another group of Palestinians who demand to be able to use Ramon Airport: Gazans!
The current plan is to only open it for West Bank Palestinians, but it is closer to Gaza and Gazans would jump at the chance to use that airport rather than try to make it to Cairo, which is very difficult. Some are demanding the right to use Ramon, and given that Israel already vets many of them to work in Israel, this would seem to be a possibility. Commenters there point out the humiliation they go through to even have a chance to travel to Egypt, the ability to fly out of Ramon would be a dream for Gazans. If for no other reason than PR, Israel should consider allowing those who pass security checks to use that airport as well.
Ramon Airport continues to expose the pure hypocrisy of Palestinian and Arab leaders who, for decades, have made decisions for Palestinians and pretend that these decisions are for their own good. In the end, they are only for the good of the self-appointed leaders, and Palestinians suffer.
Israel is treating Palestinians with more respect than their own leaders do, and despite all the anti-Israel propaganda, the people know this very well.
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