“The purpose of the [amended] orders is to IMPROVE [capital letters in the original] the current situation rather than worsen it,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor wrote. “Pursuant to the recommendations of the High Court, a joint judicial committee of Jewish and Arab judges will deliberate on each case of potential repatriation. The committee will make a decision within eight days of having a case brought before it.”

Other points Palmor emphasized included the fact that anyone issued an expulsion order – or “repatriation order,” as he called it – was entitled to legal representation, and “that there is a minuscule number of individuals to whom the orders are pertinent, since in recent years, Israel has, as a concession to the Palestinians, allowed non-West Bank residents to register with the Civil Administration [for Judea and Samaria].”

Palmor also wrote that “the order pertains to individuals who arrived in the West Bank as tourists and who have illicitly stayed beyond the validity date of their visa. Some are married to West Bank residents, and this is one of the considerations taken by the committee in its deliberations.”