By Yasmine S. Hakimian
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

WEST BANK, Israel – Two human rights organizations, Hamoked (Center for the Defense of the Individual) and B’Tselem, claim the Israeli government has taken steps to further separate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank. The West Bank and the Gaza Strip are separated by Israeli territory. Since the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, Israel has increasingly restricted Palestinian travel between the territories.

According to a paper cited in the Jerusalem Post, since last year Israel has furthered its criteria to “perpetuate a new factual and legal reality of separation between residents of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, while severing the interdependent social, economic and cultural ties between the two groups, infringing their rights and impeding the possibility that the Palestinian people will realize their right to self-determination.” 

Now, Palestinians whose registered address is in the Gaza Strip must obtain a permit to enter West Bank. The military issues the permit, which is valid for three months. To obtain a permit, a Palestinian resident of Gaza must show he or she has lived in the “West Bank continuously for the past eight years, is married with children, must have a security clearance and must provide humanitarian grounds for requesting the permit.”

Even though the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have historically been one entity, a Palestinian who does not have this permit is considered an “illegal alien.” A permit must be issued regardless of the fact that some of the Palestinians were born in West Bank, have resided there for years, or established their home there.

West Bank residents who seek to visit the Gaza Strip must sign a commitment to remain there. In a recent situation, a female resident of West Bank sought to visit her ailing husband in Gaza, but the military only approved a one way permit.

In another case, a Palestinian from Gaza returned to the West Bank when his mother’s leg was amputated. His request for a permit to return to Gaza was rejected. The army also refused to allow his wife and infant daughter in Gaza to join him in the West Bank. Eventually, the man was permitted to return to Gaza if he signed that he would never come back to the West Bank. The new policy forces relatives to move to Gaza with no possibility of returning to West Bank.

Marriage between residents of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank is not a sufficient cause for issuing a permit. Israel is being accused of “exploiting the hardship of families which are split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.” Furthermore, Israel is turning Palestinian residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territories into ‘illegal aliens’ in their own homes.

For more information, please see:

BBC –Israel’ Dividing up Palestinians’ – 10 September 2008

Jordan Times – Israel Deepens West Bank-Gaza Split – 10 September 2008

Jerusalem Post – ‘Israel is Dividing Gazan, W. Bank Populations’ – 10 September 2008

iafrica – Palestinians Forced Into Gaza – 10 September 2008

Yahoo News – Israeli Groups Chide Limitations on Palestinians – 10 September 2008