In 2013, in the framework of HaMoked’s petition, the Israeli military published a
new procedure, regulating the granting of Israeli driver’s permits in special cases to Palestinians from the OPT living in the country in the framework of the family unification procedure. Once the procedure was published, the military cancelled the previous procedure that prohibited issuing driver’s permits to Palestinians.
Data provided by the military for the period following the entry into effect of the new procedure indicated that only a few applications had been approved out of the many dozens of Israeli driver’s-permit applications the military had received.
In monitoring the implementation of the procedure,
HaMoked sent the military a freedom-of-information application on May 15, 2017.
On November 12, 2017, the
military response arrived, stating that in 2016, 47 driver’s- permit applications were filed, of them 40 were rejected outright, one was still in process, and only six were approved. In all six, the permit is limited for medical needs only, driving in general is not allowed, and all six are valid for just one year. This suggests that the military still persists in its overly rigid approach in considering such applications.
