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Israeli General Facebook Chats with Palestinians
(Al-Monitor) Shlomi Eldar - Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the IDF Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), set up the Facebook page Al-Monsiq (The Coordinator) in March 2015 to improve communications with residents of Gaza and the West Bank. In mid-November, Al-Monsiq's 80,000 Palestinian followers were asked to send in questions for Mordechai. Throughout the 30-minute chat, hundreds of participants reacted with "likes" and openly addressed the security, diplomatic and economic situation. Mordechai responded to them in Arabic. One of the main messages Mordechai sought to deliver was that "if you are asked to pay someone for an exit permit [from Gaza or the West Bank] to Israel, don't pay." He thereby sought to counter the flourishing industry of fake documentation and extortion by Palestinian middlemen who charge high fees for obtaining entry permits. Mordechai noted that "the number of Palestinians working in Israel these days is the highest since the year 2000 [when the second intifada broke out]. Some 75,000 permits have been granted." He added that Israel has an additional quota of 10,000 permits that can be issued immediately, and urged the Facebook users to apply through the PA.