For many years, the Transportation Regulations precluded the Licensing Division from issuing or renewing Israeli driving licenses or permits to residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), including who live in Israel lawfully pursuant to renewable stay permit given as part of a family unification procedure. During proceedings in
HaMoked's petition of May 2013, the state announced that on October 20, 2013, the military had issued a
new procedure aimed at regulating the process of issuing a driving licence to OPT residents, and that a previous Ministry of Transport procedure on this issue had been cancelled. In its October 2014
updating notice to the court, HaMoked contested the new procedure that was not widely publicised, did not establish a timeframe for application processing and set very rigid threshold conditions for applying for a license.
Data provided by the military in November 2014 showed that not a single application had been approved under the new procedure. Therefore, on February 2, 2015,
HaMoked reapplied to the military under the Freedom of Information Act to request final figures for the year 2014, and preliminary figures for early 2015.
According to the
military's response from February 24, 2015, from the entry into effect of the new procedure, 70 applications had been filed for an Israeli driving licence or permit: 63 in 2014 and seven in 2015. Of the 63 filed in 2014, 48 were dismissed out of hand, 12 were still in process, and only one for a driving permit was approved. The military added that other applicants were to receive driving permit valid for a period of several months, yet to be delivered to them. Of the seven applications filed in 2015, three were rejected outright and four were still in process.
