High Court orders 4,000 ILS in costs for Gisha in a petition filed against COGAT for refusing to allow a Gaza bride to travel abroad for her own wedding

May 24, 2016

Gisha filed the petition after the applications made by the bride and the groom’s parents to exit Gaza via Israel and from there travel abroad for the wedding were denied by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and when letters to the State Attorney’s Office stating intent to take legal action also failed to produce results. Two weeks after the petition was submitted, the state issued notice that it would allow the petitioners to travel abroad via Israel, which resulted in the deletion of the petition.

The state’s relatively swift approval of the applications made by the bride and the groom’s parents once a High Court petition was filed indicates that there was no justified cause to deny it in the first place. This conduct also shows that, regrettably, often the only way Gaza residents can get remedy and obtain permits to travel via Israel is by taking legal action, even when their applications meet the military’s own criteria for travel.

Seeing as the petition was the sole reason for the turnaround in the state’s position, Gisha asked the court to issue a costs order against the state. On May 24, 2015, the Supreme Court registrar ordered a 4,000 ILS costs order in favor of the petitioners, since “no pertinent reason was given for why the remedy was not granted to the petitioners before the petition was filed”.