Center for the Defence of the Individual - How to place obstacles: Israel allows Israeli relatives of prisoners deported to Gaza as part of the Shalit deal to visit them in Gaza, but only if they travel through Jordan and Egypt
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חזרה לעמוד הקודם
27.01.2012

How to place obstacles: Israel allows Israeli relatives of prisoners deported to Gaza as part of the Shalit deal to visit them in Gaza, but only if they travel through Jordan and Egypt

As part of the deal that led to the release of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Israel deported a number of Palestinian residents of Israel to the Gaza Strip. These individuals had lived with their families in Israel until they were apprehended and sent to prison. When Israel deported them to the Gaza Strip, it tore them away from everything they had known and sent them to a place most of them had never set foot in before. Israel is now severely violating their right to family life as it is not just prevent them from reuniting with their families in Jerusalem but also continues to deny Israelis entry into the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s policy with respect to family visits for individuals deported in the Shalit deal was exposed only in the framework of a High Court of Justice (HCJ) petition filed by HaMoked on January 22, 2012. In response to this petition, the State Attorney’s Office said that “an agreement has been reached between the Israel Security Agency, and the relevant officials in Egypt and in Hamas […] whereby Israel would allow the relatives of prisoners who were released to the Gaza Strip as part of the Shalit deal to visit them in the Gaza Strip, on condition that entry into Gaza for the purpose of said visit is not carried out through the Erez crossing and exit for the purpose of the visit is carried out only through the border crossings with Jordan, and subject to the absence of a security preclusion specific to the visit” (emphasis in original).

Entirely disregarding the fact that there is an active border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip and the fact that being Israelis, the relatives can leave Israel for Egypt via the Taba border crossing even without military permission, Israel is forcing the relatives to take a long and completely unnecessary journey from Israel to Jordan and from there to Egypt in order to reach the Rafah border crossing.

The reason Israel provides for its demand that the relatives traverse two additional countries in order to arrive at a territory that borders Israel is that “the meeting between the released prisoners and their families itself involves a risk of being used for the purpose of terrorist activity”. According to Israel, the risk involved in the family visits “makes imposing restrictions on such visits necessary […] these restrictions primarily mean restricting the conditions under which the visits take place”. The position that the long journey the relatives must undertake could somehow minimize the risk posed by the “meeting itself” is rather perplexing and calls into question the true purpose of this requirement, especially considering Israel’s declaration that, in principle, it sees no reason to deny the visits.

HaMoked stresses that many Israelis enter the Gaza Strip through Erez daily to visit their families, as part of the recognition of the right to family life. Having deported the former prisoners to the Gaza Strip, Israel now has an obligation to respect their rights and their relatives’ rights and allow them to see each other in the Gaza Strip. This is all the more true when there is no apparent rationale, security or otherwise, for denying the families passage through Erez, other than a desire to make it as difficult as possible for them to visit.