A draconian set of rules and restrictions on the entry of foreigners into the occupied West Bank have gone into effect today, despite months of condemnations by rights groups and legal efforts to stop the restrictions from being enforced. 

“It of course comes down to demographic considerations,” Israeli attorney Yotam Ben Hillel explains. “These new restrictions will completely isolate Palestinian society.”

Israel may have revised its West Bank entry rules in hopes of obtaining a U.S. visa waiver, but they’re still designed to isolate Palestinian society. “Allowing Israel into the U.S. Visa Waiver program in spite of this mistreatment would amount to an endorsement by the Biden administration of this discrimination,” says Americans for Justice in Palestine Action Advocacy Director Ayah Ziyadeh.

The Israeli government has revised a list of draconian restrictions on the entry of foreigners into the occupied West Bank amid pressure from US and EU authorities, though rights groups say the regulations still maintain the same goal: demographic engineering and isolation of Palestinian society. 

Dina Shehadeh, 17, was about to begin her senior year of high school in Ohio…