Israel refuses to allow Palestinian with American citizenship into the West Bank to visit his mother on her death bed because he is registered as a Gaza resident
February 26, 2019. On February 15, the petitioner arrived at Allenby Bridge Border Crossing together with his wife and two young daughters, all American citizens. The family planned to visit the petitioner’s mother, who was hospitalized in Nablus in the West Bank and nearing her death. The family wanted to visit the petitioner’s mother in her final days. The petitioner had not seen his mother in 12 years, and his daughters had never met her.
While the petitioner’s wife and children were granted entry to the West Bank the next day due to their being American citizens only, the petitioner was denied given he is registered as a Palestinian with an address in Gaza. As far as Israel is concerned, Palestinians registered in the Palestinian population registry, which Israel controls, are subject to its restricted access policy; in order to travel, Palestinians must meet the narrow criteria for movement of Palestinians set by Israel, regardless of any additional citizenship they may have. Therefore, the petitioner’s permit application to enter the West Bank had to be processed by the relevant Israeli authorities, which had not yet responded despite the urgency of the request.
A few days later, on February 20, the petitioner still hadn’t received answer, and Gisha filed another application on his behalf. The response from Israel, which only arrived on February 25, stated that his permit application had been denied on three grounds: That the Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee had sent Israeli authorities an application for the petitioner to return to the Strip (rather than to the West Bank), that the petitioner’s mother had been staying in the West Bank without a permit from Israel, and that he had last left Gaza via Rafah Crossing, without coordination with Israel.
The day after receiving this response, Gisha filed a petition (Hebrew) arguing that the grounds provided by the state were absurd, given the mother’s critical condition and the possibility that the petitioner might well miss his last chance to see her before her passing. We emphasized that three permit applications had been sent to the relevant Israeli authorities (one by Gisha, and two by the Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee), meaning that their claim whereby the application had been for return to Gaza rather than to the West Bank did not justify their response. Gisha further argued that the manner in which the petitioner had left the Gaza Strip 12 years ago earlier was completely irrelevant, and that Israel had no right to punish him in this way simply because he had exited the Strip through Rafah Crossing. The petition demanded that given the mother’s grave medical condition, the fact that she had not held a permit to be in the West Bank must not be held against her.
On February 27, 2019, Israel finally withdrew its denial and granted the petitioner a permit to enter the West Bank to see his mother. After being detained for many hours at Allenby Bridge Crossing, he was finally able to join his wife and children in Nablus. Unfortunately, by the time he had arrived, his mother was already in a state of clinical death. Less than a week later, she passed away.
The court dismissed (Hebrew) Gisha’s motion for costs despite questioning the Israeli authorities’ use of discretion in their initial denial of the petitioner’s application. The judge accepted the state’s contention that its decision to grant the petitioner a permit had been reached before the petition on his behalf had been filed, even though Gisha, the petitioner, and inquiring journalists had all been told by the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories that a final decision had not yet been made in his case, well after the petition had been filed.
