Under international law, Israel, as the occupying power in the West Bank, must allow the residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) to leave their country. The ban on travel abroad infringes on the residents' basic rights to dignity, personal autonomy and freedom of movement. Contrary to the provisions of international law, every year Israel has been preventing thousands of Palestinians from traveling from the OPT abroad, on pretexts of security. The ban is issued in secrecy – without the right to be heard, without prior notice or signed warrant, without grounds and without time limit. In the majority of cases, a person discovers he is under an exit ban only upon reaching the Allenby Bridge Border Crossing – the only exit route available to the residents of the West Bank – with full luggage and set travel plans.
Thus befell an elderly Palestinian couple from the Askar refugee camp near Nablus, who sought to travel from the West Bank to visit their children in Jordan, and their son in Qatar – whereto he had been deported by Israel, directly from prison, as part of the Shalit exchange deal, and banned from returning to the OPT. When they arrived at the Allenby Bridge border crossing, the soldiers prevented their passage and informed them that they were "banned by ISA", i.e., the Israel Security Agency. HaMoked appealed against their travel bans to the military, and stressed that these were two elderly, unwell, people. HaMoked added that the ban should be revoked as soon as possible, to prevent the violation of the couple's rights to freedom of movement and family life.
Still waiting for the response of the military, the husband passed away, without the chance to bid farewell to his children. The woman remained on her own, wishing to see her children and grandchildren, perhaps for the last time in her life.
Although the military is
required by procedure to provide a written response to appeals against security travel bans within 8 weeks at the latest, the military responded only 10 weeks after the appeal was submitted: a soldier from the District Coordination Office notified HaMoked by phone that the security exit ban against the 85 year old widow had been lifted. Two and a half weeks after the notice was delivered, the woman traveled once more to the Allenby Bridge Border Crossing, in a wheel chair, accompanied by her brother in law and nephews. To her surprise, again, the soldiers at the crossing refused to allow her to travel to Jordan. A representative of HaMoked who phoned to clarify the matter, was told by the military that a new security ban had been fed into the system that very same day – just so, without any explanation, notice or hearing.
On July 26, 2012,
HaMoked petitioned the High Court of Justice, requesting the court to order the military to allow the elderly woman to travel from the West Bank to Jordan, in order to meet her children and grandchildren in Jordan and her exiled son in Qatar. HaMoked stresses that in refusing the woman's departure from the West Bank, the military severely violates her right to family life.
