Under international law, Israel – as the occupation power in the West Bank – is required to allow the residents of the OPT to leave their country. The military is indeed authorized to restrict a person's movement, but only if strictly necessary for express security reasons, and provided it is properly balanced with the infringed rights. Nonetheless, every year, Israel prevents hundreds of Palestinians from traveling from the OPT abroad on pretexts of security, without prior notice, explanation or setting a time-limit. In most cases, the person discovers he is banned from exit, only when he reaches the Allenby Bridge Border Crossing – the only outlet abroad open to West Bank residents – carrying his luggage and his plans all made.
Thus, on February 20, 2013, a Palestinian man arrived at Allenby Bridge in order to travel to Jordan, thence on to Saudi Arabia to perform the rite of al-umrah. After a two-and-a-half-hour forced wait, a soldier approached him and curtly informed he was "banned from travel abroad".
On the following day, February 21, HaMoked filed on the man's behalf an objection to the ban with the military, and emphasized therein that the visa for Saudi Arabia the man had obtained ahead of his trip, was about to expire. Despite the urgency involved, no response arrived.
On May 19, 2013,
HaMoked petitioned the High Court of Justice to demand that the military be instructed to allow the man to travel from the west Bank abroad. In the petition, HaMoked stressed the excessive and disproportionate nature of such a sweeping, and indefinite exit ban, and argued that in leaving the response unanswered for so long, the military was breaching both its own protocols and its obligation as an administrative agency, and was also violating the man's rights to freedom of movement and freedom of religion and worship.
Three days after the petition was filed, HaMoked was notifying in writing by the military that the "security ban" against the man had already been lifted on March 4, 2013 (!), about a week after the objection had been filed. Needless to say, the military had not bothered to duly notify the man – who kept thinking that he was under an exit ban and would not succeeded to perform the pilgrimage.
Consequently, the petition was erased at HaMoked's request, and the Court ordered the State to pay ILS 5,000 in trial costs and attorney's fees.
