District Court imposes costs order in favor of Gisha for petition filed on behalf of Gaza resident whose application went unanswered

May 1, 2017

On April 30, 2017, the court discussed (Hebrew) a costs order in a petition filed by Gisha on behalf of N.A., following the Gaza Civil Liaison Administration’s (CLA) failure to respond to her application to enter Israel for a visa interview at the Swedish Consulate, the purpose of which was reunification with her family in Sweden.

After waiting for a response for two months, during which N.A. missed her first scheduled visa interview at the consulate, Gisha filed a petition on her behalf. It was only following Gisha’s petition, that the CLA processed, and approved, N.A.’s permit application.

This is one of many recent cases in which Gisha has had to take legal action, faced with the CLA’s failure to respond to humanitarian requests made by Gaza residents, which leaves the few people in the Strip who are eligible to apply for exit permits waiting for an answer.

During the hearing, the court criticized the conduct of the CLA, stating that:

“The duty of the CLA, like any other administrative agency, to respond to applications it receives within a reasonable timeframe, is self-explanatory… A situation in which applications remain unanswered in circumstances when there is an event with a specific date, throws applicants into a state of uncertainty and forces them, as in this case, to turn to the court.” – (p. 2 of the judgment, unofficially translated by Gisha, emphasis added)

Given the CLA’s conduct, the court issued a costs order of 2,000 ILS against the state. Unfortunately, the Gaza CLA has failed to take heed of the court’s general criticism, and in many cases Gisha has had to continue threatening the state with legal action in pre-petitions to the Southern District Attorney’s Office, or by petitioning the Beersheva District Court, as a means of receiving a response to residents’ permit applications.