Three petitions filed by Gisha challenge Israel’s new demand that every Israeli citizen seeking to enter Gaza must provide the cell phone number of the person they are visiting in the Strip
On May 21, 2017, Gisha was notified (Hebrew) that henceforth, any application to enter Gaza submitted by an Israeli citizen must include the current address and cell phone numbers of both the applicant and the Gaza resident who the applicant wishes to visit – for the purpose of Israel’s security screening. Gisha received the notice from the department in Israel’s Gaza Civil Liaison Administration (Gaza CLA) that handles all travel permit applications submitted by Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, also known as the Israeli Desk.
On June 6, 2017, Gisha and HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual contacted (Hebrew) the Gaza CLA with a complaint regarding the new directive, demanding that it be revoked. Gisha and HaMoked argued that while there was no impediment to Israel obtaining the requisite information with respect to permit applicants who are Israeli citizens, the Israeli Desk was not authorized to collect such information on Gaza residents, certainly not as part of a sweeping prerequisite for submitting applications. Such a demand by Israeli authorities stands in violation of the rights of Gaza residents.
On June 13, 2017, a representative of the Israeli Desk responded, claiming that Israel’s requirement of Gaza residents’ cell phone numbers is necessary as part of the screening process conducted by Israeli security agencies. In August, the Procedure for Processing Israelis’ Applications to enter the Gaza Strip (Hebrew) was updated. The updated procedure now lists cell phone numbers under the required details to be provided about the Gaza resident to be visited by the applicant. The previous version of the procedure only listed a photocopy of the resident’s ID card.
The first petition (Hebrew), concerns a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship and her five children, all minors, who are also Israeli citizens. The six applied for a travel permit to enter Gaza and visit the children’s father, a resident of the Strip, as they had done many times in the past. The court ordered the respondents to file their response by June 10, 2018.
The second petition (Hebrew) also concerns a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship who wishes to enter Gaza to visit her spouse, a resident of the Strip, and then return to her home in Israel with her young daughter, who had been staying with the father in Gaza. Following the motion for an urgent hearing, filed along with the petition, the court ordered the respondents to respond by May 30, 2018.
The third petition concerns a Palestinian who has permanent residency in Israel and is married to a Gaza resident; she wishes to return to her home in Gaza, where she has been living for many years, after a visit to Israel. This petition was also filed with a motion for an urgent hearing, and here too, the respondents were ordered to respond no later than May 30, 2018.
The three petitions concern families that are divided between Israel and Gaza: Palestinians with Israeli citizenship that are married to residents of Gaza and are therefore forced to split their lives between Gaza and Israel, due to Israel’s absolute ban on family unification with non-Israeli citizens in Israeli territory. According to Israel’s Arrangement for Divided Families (Hebrew), Israeli citizens who are married to Gaza residents are allowed to visit their spouse in the Strip, but not vice-versa.
The petitions argued that Israel’s refusal to process the petitioners’ applications if they did not provide cell phone numbers of their relatives in Gaza impinges on their right to family life, freedom of movement and autonomy; the blanket requirement was disproportionate in the absence of individual security concerns, and given that for many years Israel had conducted individual security screening without stipulating this requirement.
The petitions also argued that the Gaza CLA, as the Israeli authority responsible for implementing Israel’s civilian policy in the Gaza Strip, does not have authority to demand that Israeli citizens provide information on Gaza residents for the benefit of Israeli security agencies; the requirement is thus exploiting the petitioners’ dependency on the services provided by the Gaza CLA. In two of the petitions, the petitioners’ spouses in Gaza had stated their explicit objection to providing their cell phone numbers to the Israeli Desk of the Gaza CLA, in which case insisting on such a demand might be detrimental to the petitioners’ family unit and marital harmony.
