Following petition by Gisha, a Palestinian citizen of Israel entered Israel with her children to attend her mother’s wedding

February 2, 2020. The petitioner, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, moved to the Gaza Strip following her marriage to a resident of Gaza. She resides in Gaza pursuant to the divided families procedure (Hebrew). In early January 2020, the petitioner requested to enter Israel with her three minor children to attend her mother’s wedding, which was scheduled for the end of the month. The children are not Israeli citizens, and therefore Israel requires that they obtain permits for a short visit, although they are accompanying an Israeli citizen parent (Hebrew) who can ostensibly reside in her country of citizenship without any limitation.

The Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA) did not respond to the petitioner’s application until Gisha stepped in and sent an inquiry on her behalf on January 20, 2020. In its response, the Gaza CLA stated that “the application requires additional screening before a decision can be made and has been forwarded for review by the relevant officials as part of the processing.” On February 2, 2010, after the wedding had been postponed for two weeks and no final answer had been given, Gisha filed a petition (Hebrew) on behalf of the mother and children, emphasizing that a delay for “additional screening” was completely unreasonable given that the alleged screening pertains to three toddlers aged three, two and one, whose mother is an Israeli citizen.

After the petition was scheduled for an urgent hearing, the State Attorney’s Office notified Gisha (Hebrew) that the Gaza CLA would issue permits for the minors, but insisted that a new application must be submitted enclosing an invitation with the new wedding date. After Gisha complied with the request and the petitioner’s children received permits and entered Israel for the wedding with their mother, Gisha deleted the petition.