Palestinian Authority Minister of Communication and Postal Services Imad Al Falouji told "Globes" that the Palestinian Authority (PA) will soon ban the operations of Israeli cellular companies in its territory.
The Palestinian Ministry of Communications warned the agents of Israeli cellular companies in the Palestinian Authority not to sign new contracts with Cellcom, Pele-Phone and Orange.
Al Falouji said the main reason for the ban is that Israeli cellular companies do not have operating licenses from the Palestinian Ministry of Communications. "We approached them several times to apply for Palestinian licenses, but we were ignored," he said.
Al Falouji added, "The Israeli companies, Pele-Phone, Cellcom and Orange, benefit from the Palestinian market, but are unwilling to operate under Palestinian law. If they speak with us, we will negotiate with them."
According to Al Falouji, the decision to ban operations has not yet been published, in order to give Palestinian agents of Israeli companies time to prepare. Palestinian district governors have already published bans against the use of Israeli cellular telephones. Jenin, for example, banned the use of Israeli cellular phones for "security and economic reasons."
A Palestinian cellular telephone company Jawal operates in PA territories, with the 059 area code. Jawal has been aggressively campaigning against Israeli cellular companies in recent months, calling for the replacement of "Israeli" cellular telephones with "Palestinian" ones.
In a related matter, Al Falouji condemned the closing of the PalTel Palestine Telecommunications Company (Itizalat) offices in Abu-Dis yesterday. "Eastern Jerusalem is a Palestinian district, and PalTel should be operating there, not Bezeq," he said.
PalTel provides telephone services for Palestinian neighborhoods outside Jerusalem's municipal boundaries, including Abu-Dis, Azariya and Sawahra. The Palestinians are demanding that parts of eastern Jerusalem be connected to the Palestinian network. Al Falouji also demands that the international calling code for East Jerusalem be changed to the Palestinian Authority code 970, instead of Israel's code, 972.
The Ministry of Communications said in response that Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem is unquestioned and that Bezeq provides telephone services to all of the city's residents, Jews and Arabs alike.
As for the operations of the cellular telephone companies, the ministry said that Israel has the right to locate cellular antennae throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza in order to provide services to Israeli residents in the territories. "Israel will respect its communications obligation under the Oslo accords, and we hope that the Palestinian Authority will do the same," the ministry said.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 13 August 2001