rather than serving as a security measure, instead act as a form of collective punishment, targeting all Palestinians in the area.40 Procedures If the aim of Israel’s checkpoints and permit regime is to improve the security of Israel by controlling the movement of Palestinians and ensuring that only those who are not considered to be a security threat are able to enter Israel, then Israel would, logically, have clear and consistent criteria in place for determining who is a security threat and who is not. However, the system put in place by Israel in order to examine permit applications does not allow for a thorough examination of these applications, and those who have their application rejected are unlikely to be able to appear before a hearing committee and be informed of the reasons behind this rejection.41 “Security” is often cited as the reason for denying a permit, but it is rarely accompanied by an explanation. In addition, the rules determining who is allowed to enter Israel and who is not are often based on arbitrary criteria that change without any explanation, e.g. the arbitrary age criteria.42 The quota determining how many permits can be issued in total also indicates that permits are subject to concerns other than security. Due to housing shortages in Israel, for example, in 2014 the number of permits issued for Palestinians to work in the Israeli construction sector was increased by 5,000.43 It seems unlikely that these 5,000 Palestinian workers suddenly had a different security status. Instead, it is clear that the permit regime’s quota is created and altered for reasons other than security. Changing the security status of Palestinians from one day to the other, without any explanation, indicates that whether or not a Palestinian is allowed to enter Israel or occupied East Jerusalem has more to do with political or economic concerns than the security threat posed by the individual Palestinian. 40 Jodi Rudoren and Sewell Chan, “Israel Bolsters Security in East Jerusalem After Violence”, New York Times, 14 October 2015, available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/15/world/middleeast/ israel-east-jerusalem-violence.html?_r=0; Allison Deger, “Three new checkpoints lock down an East Jerusalem neighborhood”, Mondoweiss, 28 October 2015, available at: http://mondoweiss. net/2015/10/checkpoints-jerusalem-neighborhood 41 HaMoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual, “The Permit Regime: Human Rights Violations in West Bank Areas Known as the ‘Seam Zone’”, March 2013, page 43, available at: http://www. hamoked.org/files/2013/1157660_eng.pdf 42 OCHA – Occupied Palestinian Territories, “Fragmented Lives Humanitarian Overview 2014”, March 2015, page 16,available at: http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/annual_humanitarian_ overview_2014_english_final.pdf and Mohammed Alhaj, “Palestinians head to Al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan”, Al Jazeera, 16 July 2015, available at:http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/ inpictures/2015/07/palestinians-head-al-aqsa-mosque-ramadan-150716093237472.html 43 The International Labor Organization, “The Situation of Workers of the Occupied Palestinian Territories”, International Labor Office, 2015, page 12, available at:www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/ public/@ed_norm/@relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_368279.pdf 18