For years Israel blocks trader from travel, then withdraws its obstruction following petition by Gisha

March 6, 2019. The petitioner is a trader from the Gaza Strip. From 2015 and up until February 2017, he had been granted ‘trader permits‘ for travel to and from the Strip in order to conduct business. Then in early 2017 his application to renew his permit was denied. The Gaza Civil Liaison Administration (CLA), the Israeli authority in charge of processing all permit applications by Gaza residents, claimed that the grounds for the denial of his permit were that a member of his family was “overstaying” his permit, a term Israel uses to refer to a Palestinian who received a permit to enter Israel or the West Bank and didn’t return to the Strip. In the petitioner’s case, the CLA made it clear that his permit would not be renewed as long as his nephew was “overstaying,” that is, until the nephew returned to Gaza.

The petitioner applied again for the renewal of his trader permit. In February 2018, he was summoned for questioning at Erez Crossing by the Israel Security Agency. At the security interview, he was asked about his relatives and the nature of his business. The petitioner addressed the issue of his nephew and asked why Israel was punishing him for another person’s actions. He did not receive an answer to this question. All he was told was that he must submit another permit application in order to obtain a permit.

Months went by and additional applications submitted by the petitioner were also denied, or received no answer from Israeli authorities. In January 2019, Gisha contacted the authorities on his behalf, and we were notified that the petitioner was under a “security block,” precluding him from travel until December 24, 2019, “… for security reasons, which naturally cannot be disclosed.”

In the petition (Hebrew) filed by Gisha against this decision, we addressed Israel’s tendency to impose “security blocks” on traders, causing extensive damage to Gaza’s economy. Immediately after the petition was filed, the state suddenly withdrew (Hebrew) its position and approved the petitioner’s application to renew his trader permit.