Center for the Defence of the Individual - After two months of red tape and only after an HCJ petition: The military allowed a Bethlehem mother to travel to Gaza in order to care for her hospitalized daughter
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01.08.2013

After two months of red tape and only after an HCJ petition: The military allowed a Bethlehem mother to travel to Gaza in order to care for her hospitalized daughter

After two months of red tape and only after an HCJ petition: The military allowed a Bethlehem mother to travel to Gaza in order to care for her hospitalized daughter

Israel has been working toward separating between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since October 2000. This policy is a breach of its obligations under the Oslo Accords and rulings made by the High Court of Justice (HCJ). Israel's official policy is to restrict travel between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to "the minimum necessary" and to allow such travel only in "exceptional humanitarian" cases that meet narrow, stringent criteria. According to Israel, even first degree kinship does not constitute grounds for travel between the two parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).

The daughter of a Palestinian woman from Bethlehem married in 1999 and moved to the Gaza Strip. Due to Israel's policy of separating the two parts of the OPT, the mother did not see her daughter for 13 years, and had never met her five grandchildren who were born in the Gaza Strip. In September 2012, the daughter was admitted to hospital in Gaza due to a sudden health issue. The following day, the mother filed an application, via the Palestinian liaison office in Bethlehem, to travel to the Gaza Strip through Israel in order to care for her sick daughter. The application included a medical document from the Gaza hospital. Neither the mother's urgent request, nor HaMoked's letter to the army sent a few days later, were answered. HaMoked received the army's response only about a month later, indicating that the application was "in processing" and that the mother must send current medical documentation about her daughter's condition.

In the meantime, the daughter's condition took a turn for the worse and she had to undergo complex surgery. HaMoked sent another request to the army, noting that in light of the daughter's severe medical condition, the mother's travel to the Gaza Strip must be approved without delay. Once again, the army provided no pertinent response. The daughter underwent surgery without her mother by her side and the army continued to put the mother through the bureaucratic ringer, demanding more medical documents, refusing to receive them by fax and referring her once again to the Palestinian liaison office.

Almost two months after the mother's original application, and in the absence of any pertinent response from the army, HaMoked filed a petition to the HCJ. HaMoked argued that the army was breaching its duty to ensure the normal lives of residents in the occupied territory and that refraining from providing a pertinent answer to the application for so long was a violation of the mother's right to freedom of movement in her own country and of her right to family life.

Less than two weeks after the petition was filed, the State Attorney's Office approved the mother's application to travel in order to visit her daughter in hospital in Gaza. HaMoked deleted the petition and the court ordered the state to pay 4,000 ILS in costs.