The Cabinet on Sunday, 16 Cheshvan 5774, approved Regional Cooperation Minister Silvan Shalom’s and Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s plan to build an infrastructure for a permanent x-ray inspection system for cargo at the Allenby Border Terminal http://www.iaa.gov.il/Rashat/en-US/Borders/Alenbi/ . Building the infrastructure is the initiative of the Finance Ministry, the Regional Cooperation Ministry, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and the Civil Administration in Yehuda and Shomron.

The Allenby Border Terminal is the only crossing between Yehuda and Shomron and Jordan, and serves the PA (Palestinian Authority) for the transit of people, and for the import and export of goods, to and from Jordan and Arab countries to the east, to and from the PA.

In order to further improve cargo service at the Allenby Border Terminal and assist the PA economy, it became necessary to upgrade the x-ray inspection system. The new system, to be operated by Department of Customs and VAT personnel, will replace the existing system, which greatly slows the inspection and transit approval process and enables inspection and transit from the Terminal freight wing only, thus preventing the transit of goods requiring refrigeration.

The new system itself has been donated by the Dutch government following a survey of PA businesspeople that evaluated the need to upgrade the system and which found that a new system could expand PA exports to the east by approximately 30%. The survey was carried out in cooperation with the Regional Cooperation Ministry and the international Quartet.

The Finance Ministry, the Regional Cooperation Ministry, the Israel Tax Authority and the Civil Administration have invested 35 million NIS in building the infrastructure for the new system at the Allenby Border Terminal. It was determined that in order to simplify trade and cooperation with the PA, it was necessary to build a full inspection facility similar to that which exists near the port of Haifa (see attached photo), including – inter alia – access, an appropriate building to protect the system and workers from radiation, and a building for manual inspections, all according to international standards.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)