Israel holds most prisoners from the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) in prisons inside its own borders, in breach of international law. As a result, relatives of prisoners must obtain an Israeli entry permit in order to visit their loved ones in prison. For three years after the second intifada broke out in 2000, Israel put a full moratorium on visits by relatives from the OPT with prisoners labeled "security prisoners". Beginning in March 2003, following legal action by HaMoked, the visits gradually resumed under strict restrictions and limiting criteria.
Under the relevant military protocol, when a prison visit application is approved, the relative,
a first degree relation of the prisoner (including grandparents), receives a multi-visit permit valid for one year. The permit allows the relative to visit the prison without restriction, subject to the availability of prison visit shuttles. These shuttles are offered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and are usually available twice a month. The military protocol also stipulates that even relatives defined by the army as precluded from entering Israel for security reasons may take part in prison visits under certain conditions. Such "precluded" relatives receive a single-visit permit valid for 45 days. Once used, they can request another permit from the army. In practice, the army's processing of applications by so-called "precluded" individuals is deficient. It is marred by foot-dragging and usually takes many months, during which relatives are denied the visits they so long for.
A mother of seven from Bethlehem, who is in poor health, wanted to visit her son who has been imprisoned inside Israel since 2008. She saw her son only six times during the first four years of his incarceration, as the army had defined her as "precluded from entering Israel", though she had never been arrested or interrogated. She was granted single-visit permits, with long gaps between them. HaMoked contacted the army several times asking it to remove the preclusion which had been imposed arbitrarily and without reason or explanation. No pertinent response was received.
On November 20, 2012,
HaMoked petitioned the Jerusalem District Court, demanding the mother receive a multi-visit permit valid for one year. HaMoked argued that the right to family visits in prison is a fundamental right to which both the prisoners and their relatives are entitled and that the army's policy was a violation of the right to family life and a breach of the army's duty to allow Palestinian prisoners and their relatives to have reasonable family ties. HaMoked added that at the policy level, the army must put in place a procedure that would allow relatives defined as "precluded" to receive multi-visit permits, or, alternatively, provide an avenue for filing requests to have a preclusion removed.
On February 5, 2013, in
response to the petition, the state argued that "Granting the Petitioner's request for a multi-visit permit to enter Israel that is valid for a year may put national security at risk", adding that "the decision made by security officials relies on classified security information".
Two weeks later, the Jerusalem District Court held a hearing, at the end of which, the judge scheduled a further hearing in April in which "representatives of the competent security officials shall appear before the court in order to present the classified information". However, just four days after the hearing and two and a half weeks after its initial notice,
state counsel said that: "security officials have informed me that they would agree, in the circumstances of the matter and beyond legal requirement, to remove the security preclusion issued against the Petitioner, such that she may file a new application for a multi-visit permit". The classified security information and the threat to national security vanished into thin air.
The petition was deleted and the court ordered the state to pay 4,000 ILS in court costs. HaMoked continues its battle to allow relatives of prisoners who are defined as "precluded" to obtain multi-visit permits and its efforts to bring an end to the sweeping, arbitrary preclusions issued by the army.
