At the age of 17, a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip moved to the West Bank to find work. In 1998, when he was 20, he managed to have his address listing in the population registry changed from Gaza to the West Bank. His parents and brothers followed him to the West Bank, and also changed their address listings, and the entire family settled down in the West Bank. In 2003, he was arrested and deported to Gaza, despite his registration as a resident of West Bank. His insistent requests to return to the West Bank were all rejected by Israel. In time, he married a Gazan woman and formed a family there.
In 2009, HaMoked contacted the military on his behalf. Thereupon, the military summoned the man to a "security talk" ahead of approving his passage, but it refused outright to approve the relocation from Gaza to the West Bank of his wife and children, who had been born in Gaza.
On March 8, 2010, HaMoked
petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ) to instruct the military to allow all of the family to travel from Gaza to the West Bank. HaMoked stressed that the military's initial decision to deport the man to Gaza had been in breach of military protocols, given that he was officially registered as a resident of the West Bank; therefore, it was unreasonable to harm the man further, after the state had already acknowledged it had made a mistake, and was about to approve his return to the West bank. HaMoked also claimed that in refusing to allow his whole family to move to the West Bank, Israel was violation the man's right to family life, and in effect preventing his return to the West Bank.
In its initial response to the petition, the state persisted in refusing to allow the family's relocation to the West Bank. The state claimed that there was no room for court intervention with regard to the man's relatives, given that they were asking to relocate to the West Bank without meeting the criteria set in the military's "settlement procedure". The state announced it had no objection to the man himself returning to the West Bank, but that he would not be allowed to reach the West Bank through Israel and would have to do through Jordan.
On April 19, 2012, the state requested the court to postpone judgement pending the HCJ's ruling in the HaMoked's general petition against the procedure for "settlement" in the West Bank. Following the HCJ's dismissal of the general petition, HaMoked requested the court to instruct the state to reconsider the request of the man and his family. HaMoked stressed that in rejecting the general petition, the HCJ did rule that the criteria of the "settlement procedure" were overly rigid, and that requests for relocation due to marriage should not be dismissed automatically.
The state requested the court to wait for the publication of the
revised "settlement procedure". Following its publication, the state announced that the man and his family could again apply for relocation to the West Bank.
On October 10, 2013, HaMoked reapplied to the military on behalf of the man and his family. Five months later,
the state informed the court that the military had decided to approve the family's relocation to the West Bank; the wife and children would be given temporary West Bank stay permits, pursuant to the gradual "settlement" process stipulated in the procedure. In addition, the state demanded that the family arrange for an armed escort by a security company, if it would wish to reach the West Bank through Israel.
