Israel holds most prisoners who are residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) in prisons located inside its territory, in violation of international law, thus forcing their relatives to request permits to enter Israel in order to visit their loved ones in prison.
Beginning in 2000 and for three years following the outbreak of the second intifada, Israel completely suspended visits to "security prisoners" by relatives from the OPT. Only following
HaMoked's petition to the High Court of Justice (HCJ), Israel gradually began allowing, under severe restrictions, regular family visits to prisoners, provided the relatives obtain a prison-visit entry permit to Israel, and travel to the prison via the guarded shuttle organized by the ICRC in coordination with the military. In October 2004, close to a year after the preliminary arrangements for prison visits were made,
Israel pledged it would also allow West-Bank Palestinians defined by the military as “precluded from entering Israel” to visit prisons in Israel using single-entry permits valid for 45 days, subject to individual security screening.
A Palestinian prisoner, serving a sentence in Israel since 2005, was regularly visited by his mother, who lives in the West bank. In May 2011, the mother applied for a permit to enter Israel in order to visit her son. More than three months later, in August 2011, the military informed the mother – who has never been arrested or interrogated – that she was banned from entering Israel, and that her request had been transferred for processing under the procedure for persons banned from entry.
On March 14, 2013, as no response arrived for almost two years,
HaMoked petitioned the Jerusalem Court for Administrative Affairs to instruct the military to allow the woman to visit her imprisoned son. HaMoked also requested that the military be instructed to abide by
its HCJ undertaking, and respond within 8 weeks to prison-visit requests, pursuant to the procedure for entry-precluded persons. HaMoked asserted that the right to family visits of prisoners is a basic right of both prisoners and their families, deriving from the perception of the human being as a social creature living as part of a family and a community. HaMoked added that infringing a basic right, even if done for security reasons, is permissible only if the basic right at stake is duly considered and the standards of reasonableness and proportionality are met.
In response to the petition, the military notified that it decided to reject the woman's application on the grounds that "her entry to prison would jeopardize the security of the Area." The military stated that its decision was based, inter alia, on information that in November 2012, "several Hamas activists" had visited the woman's home.
During the court hearing of June 20, 2013, HaMoked stated that on the date noted in the statement of response, the woman and her husband had returned from the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. According to Muslim custom, a celebration was held in their honor, during which, dozens of people visited their home. HaMoked argued that it was unreasonable to require the woman to ask the identity of each visitor, much less, to hold her responsible for his actions. But the military refused to lift the ban, claiming it was based on "classified security material." After the court reviewed the classified material ex camera, the state announced that the military would consider the woman's case in six months' time and if no new material arose, it would permit her visit. HaMoked, therefore, requested to erase the petition.
Four days after the hearing, the woman was surprised to find that the military had issued her with a single-visit entry permit, valid from June 15, 2013. Thus, while the military's "left hand" persisted in refusing the request and even convinced the court that the woman's entry to Israel was a "security threat," its "right hand" had already issued the woman with the requested entry permit.
