This passport was issued in Gaza to a merchant in 1998 and valid for three years.

The MRZ is using ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code : PS.

Interestly, it has an exit stamp from Gaza International Airport on 13 June 1999.

GAZA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Yasser Arafat International Airport (???? ???? ????? ??????‎‎ Ma??r Y?sir 'Araf?t ad-Dawli), formerly Gaza International Airport and Dahaniya International Airport (IATA: GZA, ICAO: LVGZ), is located in the Gaza Strip, in between Rafah and Dahaniya, close to the Egyptian border. The facility, which opened on 24 November 1998, ceased operation during the Second Intifada on 8 October 2000. It is owned, and was operated, by the State of Palestine, and served as the home airport for Palestinian Airlines.

The construction of the airport was provided for in the Oslo II Agreement of 1995. The airport was built with funding from Japan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and Germany and designed by Moroccan architects (modeled after Casablanca airport) and engineers funded by Morocco's King Hassan II.

The radar station and control tower were destroyed by Israeli Air Force on 4 December 2001, after the start of the al-Aqsa Intifada. Bulldozers cut the runway apart on 10 January 2002.

Palestinian Authority Passport / Travel Document

The Palestinian Authority Passport / Travel Document [ جواز سفر‎‎ (Jawaz Safar) ] is a travel document issued since April 1995 by the Palestinian National Authority to Palestinian residents of the Palestinian territories for the purpose of international travel. It was issued under the name of the Palestinian Authority and not the State of Palestine.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) started issuing passports to the public in the self-ruling areas of Gaza and Jericho on Sunday, 2 April 1995, two years after the Oslo Accords of 1993, the Palestinian Authority started issuing Palestinian Authority passports to the public in the self-ruling areas of Gaza Strip and West Bank. These passports retained the personal ID number of the Israeli Civil Administration.

VERSION 1 - GREEN COVER



According to the Jordan Times, Arab League Secretary General 'Ismat' Abd-al-Majid received the first copy of the Palestinian passport on 29 March 1995 from Muhammad al-Subayh, executive secretary of the Palestinian National Council. Noting that Hajj pilgrims would be the first to benefit from the new passports when crossing the Jordanian territories on their way to Saudi Arabia, sources at the Ministry of Interior, said the Palestinian Authority would begin issuing passports on Friday, 31 March 1995, to Palestinian residents of the two self-rule areas, Gaza and Jericho (Jordan Times, 30-31 Mar. 1995).



The passports were green with document holder's photo on a red background and the duration of validity of 3 years. They were printed by the national printing press in France.

VERSION 2 - BLACK COVER



A 14 March 2009 article on the non-governmental Palestinian Ma'an News Agency website indicates that the head of the passports department in the West Bank stated on 14 March 2009 that new Palestinian passports were to be available in one week. He stated that they were to have black covers, be valid for a period of five years instead of three years, cost 210 shekels or 50 United States (US) dollars and contain an electronic code to assist in the identification of the possessor and in the reduction of fraud (Ma'an News Agency 14 Mar. 2009).

On 12 August 2008 it was announced that the Palestinian Authority will start issuing new passports with black color cover and the duration of the validity of 5 years instead of 3, this change came in response to a request by the Ministry of Interior of the Palestinian government in the light of observations and demands of the Palestinian people and complained of the short time and the difficulties and cost resulting from the renewal especially for citizens living abroad and citizens with frequent travel.



Effective 1 April 2009 the Palestinian National Authority began issuing new Palestinian passports. Old passports remained valid but will be replaced as they expire. The new passports differ from the old passports in two significant features: the cover of the new ordinary passport will now be black instead of green. The pages of the passports will be pink. The background of the photos in the new passports will be blue instead of red. All passports will be valid for 5 years.

The new black-cover passport was officially issued on 29 March 2009 and were printed in Germany.

PALESTINIAN NATIONAL AUTHORITY

Palestinian National Authority ( PA or PNA; Arabic: السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية‎‎ as-Sulṭa al-Waṭanīya al-Filasṭīnīya ) is the interim self-government body established in 1994 following the Gaza–Jericho Agreement to govern the Gaza Strip and Areas A and B of the West Bank, as a consequence of the 1993 Oslo Accords. Following elections in 2006 and the subsequent Gaza conflict between the Fatah and Hamas parties, its authority had extended only in areas A and B of the West Bank. Since January 2013, the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority uses the name State of Palestine on official documents.

On 5 January 2013, following the 2012 UNGA Resolution (United Nations General Assembly resolution 67/19 is a resolution upgrading Palestine to non-member observer state status in the United Nations. It was adopted by the sixty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly on 29 November 2012), Palestinian President Abbas ordered all Palestinian embassies to change any official reference to the Palestinian Authority into State of Palestine.

ISO 3166-1

Following the recognition of Palestine as a non-member UN state in 2012, the official designation used in ISO 3166-1 was changed from Occupied Palestinian Territory to State of Palestine.
 
PERMITTED COUNTRIES

PA passport "is essentially a travel document and does not stipulate that the owner is a citizen of Palestine". It was also reported that some holders of PA passports are not permitted by Israel to enter occupied Palestine.

The United States does not recognize Palestine as a country, and therefore the Palestinian Authority Passport/Travel Document does not confer citizenship but recognizes Palestinian Authority passports as travel documents

In May 2002  Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates indicated that the Palestinian passport will be recognized in their countries provided that there is a valid entry visas and other papers necessary to allow passport holders to travel into their countries.

In October 2007, the Japanese Ministry of Justice announced that Japan would recognize Palestinian nationality and accepting the travel documents.

Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem most often have to travel through Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, Jordan, because Israeli Authorities very rarely grant the documents needed to use Ben Gurion airport.  Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem must travel via the Allenby Bridge, which crosses the Jordan River and connects the West Bank to Jordan. The Allenby Bridge crossings' is currently entirely controlled by Israel on the West side of the river, although previous agreements with the Palestinian Authority were supposed to give it joint control with eventual takeover of the PA of the border crossing.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTIONS

The issuance of Passport/Travel Document is governed by "Agreement on the Gaza Strip and Jericho Area" Cairo, May 4, 1994, Annex II and the Appendix C details the technical requirements, including format, text and size of pages etc.
 
DIPLOMATIC REQUEST PAGE

The diplomatic note was printed in Arabic and English.
 
Note: In the English part, there is a wrong spelling which was spelt PERSUANT and the correct one would be PURSUANT.