Israeli immigration has introduced a new visa stamp limiting entrance of foreign nationals to the Palestinian Authority controlled areas only.

With this new stamp comes a new restriction on the visitor's freedom of movement.

It bars foreigners visiting areas under the Palestinian Authority from entering Israel.

Israel claims this new border policy has been enforced for security purposes.

Is Israel pre-empting a final settlement with the Palestinians, drawing the lines of the Palestinian state and imposing the status quo?

Inside Story presenter Imran Garda is joined by Ghassan Khatib, a political analyst and director of the Government Media Centre, Hillel Frisch, a senior research fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA), and Geoffrey Aronson, the executive director of the Washington-based Foundation for Middle East Peace.

This episode of Inside Story aired from Wednesday, September 2, 2009.