18 permissible. Despite of this, the Israeli permit regime is consistently used to undermine Palestinians’ freedom of religion and belief. Israel’s violations of Palestinians’ rights became the center of a public discussion in 2012, when 80 Christian leaders in Palestine sent an open letter to the then Israeli ambassador to the United States. In this letter, they stated that the declining number of Christians in Palestine was a direct result of the Israeli occupation and its associated human rights violations, including the violation of Palestinians’ basic right to worship.229 Palestinians’ access to their places of worship is severely affected by the general restrictions on movement imposed by the permit regime. This was documented by the former Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, who found that restrictions on the religious freedom of Palestinians are imposed by the Israeli authorities through the system of permits, visas, checkpoints and the Annexation and Segregation Wall.230 Accordingly, since 1993, millions of Palestinians have been prevented from accessing some of their most holy places of worship, particularly those sites located in Jerusalem. Furthermore, access to important places of worship within the remainder of the West Bank is also restricted by the permit regime, including access to religious sites in Hebron and Bethlehem.231 Israeli authorities have acknowledged the importance of the holy sites in Jerusalem to Palestinians. This can be seen in Israel’s permitting of higher numbers of Palestinians to enter Jerusalem during religious holidays. However, receiving a permit remains difficult even during these periods, and the procedures remain complicated and arbitrary.232 For example, on the first Friday of Ramadan 2014, only Palestinian men aged over 50 and women aged over 40, excluding residents of Hebron, were allowed to enter Jerusalem without a permit.233 This age criteria was different in 2013,234 as well as in 2015,235 and such changes only emphasize the arbitrariness of 229 80 Palestinian Christian Leaders, “Open Letter to Michael Oren ahead of Easter”, Ma’an News Agency, 28 March 2012. Available at: http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=471921 230 Asma Jahangir, “Report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Asma Jahangir. Addendum: Mission to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory”, UN Human Rights Council, 12 January 2009, page 2. Available at: http://www.refworld.org/publisher,UNHRC,MISSION,ISR,4978 8a742,0.html 231 Ibid. Page 9 232 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 233 Ibid. 234 Ibid. 235 Mohammed Alhaj, “Palestinians head to Al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan”, Al Jazeera, 16 July 2015. at:http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2015/07/palestinians-head-al-aqsa-mosqueramadan-150716093237472.html 62