Gisha files petition on behalf of a Palestinian living in the West Bank who visited his family in Gaza and has since been denied access back to his home in the West Bank

January 31, 2019. Today, Gisha submitted a petition on behalf of a Palestinian who is being denied access to the West Bank by Israel. The petitioner was born in the Gaza Strip in 1995. His registered address was listed in the West Bank, in accordance with his father’s registered address.

At the age of 20, the petitioner decided to move to the West Bank. His permit application was approved by Israel and he relocated in January 2016. About two years later, the petitioner filed an application to visit his family in Gaza, and obtained a permit. After his visit, he applied for a permit to return to his home in the West Bank, but Israel denied his application, claiming he was a resident of the Gaza Strip, not the West Bank. This allegation stands in contrast to the registered address in the petitioner’s ID card and his birth certificate. It is also incongruent with the fact that just two years earlier, Israel had allowed the petitioner to move to the West Bank, based on his registered address.

In the petition (Hebrew), Gisha argued that Israel’s decision to bar the petitioner from returning home was a violation of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention, which prohibits population transfer in an occupied territory. We demonstrated that the accepted interpretation of the terms ‘forcible transfer’ and ‘expulsion’ is broad, including a ban on relocating a person against their will, whether by using direct or indirect pressure, or by exploiting governmental powers. In this context, any alleged “consent” given by the individual for being relocated should be examined carefully, with careful consideration of the circumstances in which it was given and to that individual’s level of vulnerability.

We further argued that Israel’s decision in the petitioner’s matter had been made in complete disregard of the facts, while completely ignoring the official documents held by the petitioner, which were issued by Israeli authorities, as well as their own previous decision in the petitioner’s matter.

The court ordered the state to submit its preliminary response to the petition by March 20, 2019.