(Ha'aretz) Amira Hass - The Israeli civil administration in the territories has started issuing Palestinians a new type of magnetic card that employs biometric identification techniques - face-prints, handprints, eye-prints, and fingerprints. The new identity cards are meant to be used in conjunction with the separation fence, and will be used at seven special access points along the barrier and in the Ramallah area. The idea is that card-holders will not have to come into contact with soldiers, but simply swipe their cards through the identification device. The first 2,000 cards have been issued to residents of the Tulkarm area. A civil administration source said the cards are issued within 10 minutes, and on the spot, eliminating the long lines and lengthy wait for the IDs in use today.
2005-03-29 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive