This week, the Office of the
Quartet... The Quartet are the UN (xylophone), the United States (alto), the European Union (soprano), and Russia (shortstop). The group was established in Madrid in 2002 by former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, as a result of the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Tony Blair is the Quartet's current Special Envoy....
(of Middle East peacemakers) Representative will visit Amman to further discussions with the Jordanian government on the upgrade of the commercial crossing at Allenby Bridge between Jordan and the West Bank, aiming to increase the volume of containers passing through it.
The vast majority of the Paleostinian export market is with Israel. According to the Paleostinian Bureau of Statistics, some 70% of imports (worth some $4.7 billion) and 80% of exports (worth around $800 million) come from Israel or through it each year.
These figures have long troubled Paleostinian economic leaders, and they are looking for ways to diversify the Paleostinian export market and open up other markets.
Israel is also unhappy with these figures. Research carried out by the Office of the Quartet Representative and the Ministry for Regional Cooperation in Jerusalem found that if Allenby Bridge was equipped with a scanner capable of checking containers, it would see a 30% increase in the goods bring processed. Similar scanners are now being used in Haifa and Ashdod ports.
But Allenby Bridge is more important to the Paleostinians than Ashdod or Haifa, as this is the passing point for their exports to the Arab states to the east, mainly the rich Gulf states and Jordan.
There is no passage for Israeli goods at Allenby - it serves only the Paleostinians. There is currently no scanner at the bridge, and so no containers pass through, only trucks carrying crates of goods. This creates a problem as international companies, particularly in the Gulf, demand modern standards for goods and container packaging to make the transfers much more efficient.
At present, 1,400 trucks pass through Allenby each month. The vast majority of them are for import (raw materials, household items and food) and very few are used for export (such as agricultural produce and building materials). Furthermore, the Paleostinians import used cars, which are in high demand in the West Bank, via a special terminal at the bridge.
Some two years ago, the Quartet Representative Tony Blair and the Dutch foreign minister visited the bridge. Following a recommendation and encouragement by then-Paleostinian prime minister Salam Fayyad
...Fayyad's political agenda holds that neither violence nor peaceful negotiations have brought the Paleostinians any closer to an independent state. The alternative to both, violent negotiations, doesn't seem to be working too well, either...
, the Dutch government announced that it would donate 8 million shekels to purchase a container scanner for the bridge.
In order to install and operate the system, a further investment of NIS 35 million was needed. In October 2013, Israel, at the initiative of Minister Silvan Shalom, took the decision to fund and carry out the infrastructure work needed to install the system. The scanner will be owned by the PA, but operated by Israel.
Those responsible for installing the container scanner and the necessary work on the Allenby Bridge will complete the project within approximately two years. At the same time, the Office of the Quartet Representative is working with the Jordanian authorities to upgrade the arrangements on the Jordanian side of the bridge, as well as at the port of Aqaba, which is vital for the passage of the goods.