Hi,
Im due to travel to Tel Aviv in the near future. Im aware as a British citizen i will just get a stamp or card on entry. However if then when in Jerusalem I travel over the board to the occupied territories would this be an issue on exit?
I am later in the year flying Qatar airways to Bangkok, will this be an issue if i have an Israeli stamp?
Thanks
There is no border between Israel and the West Bank. Once you are in Israel you are free (as a tourist) to go wherever you like in the West Bank.
Thousands of tourists visit Bethlehem every day, and this raises no eyebrows whatsoever. Other West Bank cities are less visited by tourists, for fairly obvious reasons, but going to Ramallah or Nablus just to have a look round, sample the food, etc., is a totally normal thing for tourists to do and nobody will have any objection. There will be no evidence in your passport that you did this. (But take your passport when you go; you might need to show it at roadblocks to prove you are a tourist. You will almost certainly be waved straight through.)
Israel no longer stamps passports at Ben-Gurion Airport, so assuming you enter and leave by plane your passport will have no evidence of your visit to Israel.
If airport security personnel ask you at the airport, when you leave, if you visited the West Bank, answer truthfully. Don't make political statements; just say you were visiting as a tourist (assuming that's the case).
Yes i will be flying in and out of TLV so great, thanks very much for the response your help is appreciated. !!
Confirmed. While you can't go to Gaza, the West Bank is not a problem.
The new-ish policy of stamping the tourist card has made the Israeli stamp stigma a thing of the past.
Once you are in Israel you are free to go wherever you like in the West Bank only if you're a tourist. But that should be a second choice. There're a lot of places in Israel that should not be missed before thinking to go to the other locations. I've had a 7 days Israel tours around a year back that was a package covering Tel Aviv , Masada & the Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Jordan River , Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Upper Galilee, Golan Heights, Sefad, Nazareth, Acre Carmel, Caesarea but unfortunately i missed some of those . There were still some other places that was not included in my package. So If you go to Israel make sure you're not missing these places before moving towards the other locations. For more information you can visit: http://www.wonders-tours.com/7-days-highlights-tour-in-israel-273