Ghasan Alyan
Ghasan AlyanIDF Spokesperson's Unit

After a series of Israeli concessions to the Palestinian Authority, including building permits for housing units in Area C and arranging registration and status for thousands of Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria, Israel is making another gesture.

For the first time, Palestinian Arab factories in Judea and Samaria will receive an Israeli stamp of approval (known as “Tav Teken” in Hebrew and issued by the Standards Institute of Israel), Kan 11 News reported on Thursday.

According to the report, the pilot will begin in another week and a half, during which five factories in the area will receive the Israeli approval stamp.

The factories in question are factories in the field of steel, pipes, aluminum and paving stones in Hebron, Bethlehem and Tulkarm. Representatives of the Standards Institute of Israel have already started entering the factories for quality control purposes. Each such entry is made under heavy security with a military escort.

The Israeli standard will allow factories to market their products to the Israeli market while encountering significantly less bureaucracy.

The project is led by the Head of the Unit for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories. Maj. Gen. Ghasan Alyan.

If the pilot is successful, the intention is to expand the move so that dozens of Palestinian Arab enterprises will receive an Israeli standard and, in the future, the plan is to train the Standards Institute of the Palestinian Authority to issue the approval itself.