Following petition by Gisha, Israel withdraws “security block” and grants Palestinian with Israeli citizenship a permit to visit her ailing brother in Gaza after a decade of separation
March 12, 2019. The petitioner, 57, was born in Gaza and moved from the Strip to Israel in 1982 following her marriage. About eight years ago she was widowed and in 2017 she lost her son. All of her relatives, other than her remaining daughter, live in Gaza. In January, the petitioner applied for a permit to visit her sick brother whom she had not seen for over a decade. Though her application included documents attesting to the brother’s serious medical condition, Israel denied it due to an unspecified “security block.”
Gisha submitted a petition (Hebrew) against the refusal, arguing that the petitioner does not pose a security threat and that even if she did pose some kind of risk, Israel should approve the permit application given the circumstances at hand, which clearly fall into what Israel defines as “humanitarian exceptions.” In its decision, we argued, Israel had relied solely on security considerations without giving weight to other important considerations. In response (Hebrew) to the petition, Israel withdrew its denial and agreed to grant the petitioner a permit for a short visit to the Strip despite claiming that members of her family were allegedly Hamas operatives, providing she signed a commitment whereby she would “refrain from contact with terrorists.”
The petitioner, whose only intention was to visit her ailing brother, agreed to sign the commitment. However, Israel suddenly introduced another condition for her exit, specifying that she would only be granted a permit subject to her attending a security interview at Erez Crossing. Gisha objected to this condition, as it meant the Israel Security Agency would be able to deny the petitioner’s entry to Gaza at the last minute without having to present its reasons before the court. Therefore, Gisha insisted that a hearing be scheduled on the petition, at which point the state withdrew its additional condition and the petitioner was granted a permit to visit her family in the Strip.
