Tag: Denial of Entry

Despite Promises, Israel Continues to Deny Foreign Nationals Entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territories

by the Campaign for the Right of Entry, February 6th

Despite a written announcement by the Israeli military Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (CoGAT) on December 28, 2006 that Israel has changed its policy of denying entry to foreign nationals traveling to the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), the Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-entry continues to receive information from foreign nationals being denied entry on a regular basis. For every case that contacts the Campaign, numerous others remain undocumented. The following indicative cases are the tip of the iceberg:

• Mahmmoud M. Alie, 70, US national from Chicago, has been trying to enter the West Bank for nine months to be with his 70-year-old wife. He was last denied entry at the Jordanian border on 20 January. He was told that the reason was that “he was on a list on the computer.” (Tel. Chicago: 001-4147593558)
• Nader Rahwan Hadallah, 43, US national from Florida, went to Amman with his Palestinian wife and was denied entry when they tried to return on 18 January. (Tel. Dubai: 00971-508250067)
• Dr. Dirgham Abu Ramadan, a German national, has been working as one of the few open-heart surgeons in the occupied West Bank since 2001. He was denied a visa extension on 15 January and 25 January and threatened with deportation. After legal intervention he received a three-month visa, instead of the long-term permission to stay he requested. (Tel.: 0599-412274)
• Suzy Salamy, US national from New York who came to do a documentary on Jewish American peace activists, was denied entry and deported from Ben Gurion airport on 5 January. (Tel. New York: 001-6462494435 // Email: rohee43209@yahoo.com)
• Abdel Jamal Wadoud Ali, 67, and his wife Kuthar Khuri Ali, 52, both US nationals from Florida, came to visit their daughters and to care for Kuthar’s 80-year-old mother. They were held for seven days at Ben Gurion airport and then deported to Jordan on 16 January. (Tel. Amman: 00962-53990934)
• Mrs. A. and her two-year-old daughter, US nationals, have tried to reunite with her husband six times over the past year with no success. They were last denied entry on 8 January with no reason given.
• Riad Sharma, US national from Georgia who has two daughters living in al-Bireh, in the West Bank, was last denied entry on 3 January 2007. He spent in total about NIS 40,000 hiring a Israeli lawyer and paying court fees including a NIS 25,000 deposit that will only be paid back if/when Mr. Sharma leaves the country, just to be allowed in for two weeks. After another costly legal procedure he obtained a last-minute visa extension for two and a half months.(Tel. West Bank: 972-2-2403551;email: lena_shrm@yahoo.com )

In their response to a recent CoGAT presentation presented to the international community which restated Israel’s supposed change in policy of access for foreign citizens, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem noted:

All aspects of Israel’s policies with regard to the Palestinian civilian population have been characterized by arbitrariness and a complete lack of transparency. The COGAT presentation does not mention any mechanisms that will be established to ensure that even the limited improvements presented will be implemented. Such mechanisms are crucial to ensure that the Palestinian population benefits from the measures described…. Today tens of thousands of families remain forcibly separated, and cannot even get short-term visitors permits.
Israel continues its grave violations of International and Humanitarian Law by prohibiting families remaining together and thus forcing them to relocate. The policy of obstructing foreign nationals from reaching the oPt is causing extreme damage to all sectors of Palestinian society, namely education, business and civil society.

*The CoGAT letter and presentation, Btselem’s response and details of cases denied entry are available on request

For more information: (c) +970-(0)59-817-3953,or (c) + 970-(0)59-378-278 (email) info@righttoenter.ps

Haaretz: “West Bank heart surgeon faces possible deportation from Israel”

by Reuters, January 27th

One of the few open-heart surgeons based in the occupied West Bank said on Saturday he had been detained at Israel’s airport and faced possible deportation.

After being detained for more than a day at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, Israel granted Dirgham Abu Ramadan, a German cardiologist of Palestinian origin, a one-week extension on his tourist visa and allowed him to enter the country.

“They told me I was allowed in for seven days during which I would either get a work permit or I leave the country,” Abu Ramadan told Reuters.

Abu Ramadan has performed surgeries at hospitals across the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip for years. He said he has 270 surgeries scheduled in the coming months.

Mazen al-Shawa, general manager of the al-Mezan Hospital in the West Bank city of Hebron, said Abu Ramadan was scheduled to perform eight procedures on Saturday alone. “This is a very grave issue. He’s the only professional surgeon in the West Bank,” al-Shawa said.

Some Palestinians can receive treatment at Israeli hospitals but it is difficult to get permits and many cases have been refused.

Shlomo Dror, an Israeli defence ministry spokesman, said Abu Ramadan received a week-long tourist visa and was required to apply within seven days for a permanent work permit.

Abu Ramadan told Reuters by telephone from the airport that he has been working legally in the West Bank for years and that a lawyer was working on his work permit.

Thousands of expatriates of Palestinian origin have been entering the West Bank for years on tourist visas because of the difficulty of getting permanent residency cards and other permits issued by Israel.

But since the Hamas Islamist movement took power in March, Israel has tightened up on the use of tourist visas, which had been renewable every three months by leaving the West Bank and returning again.

Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat reached a deal last month with the Israeli government to allow foreign nationals of Palestinian origin to get Israeli visas that would allow them entry to Palestinian areas.

The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem estimates that Israel has frozen 120,000 Palestinian family reunification requests since a Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000.

Haaretz: “Israel grants W. Bank access to foreign citizens of Palestinian origin”

by Amira Hass, January 17th

Israel on Tuesday sent a letter to the Palestinian Authority granting Palestinians with foreign citizenship permission to enter the West Bank, yet activists say the new rule is not being implemented.

The letter from Major General Yosef Mishlav, the coordinator of government activities in the territories, to Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat was released Tuesday at a press conference in Ramallah.

“I am informing you that policy regarding the entrance of foreign citizens of countries who have diplomatic ties with Israel has changed, and their entrance to the West Bank is now possible,” Mishlav wrote in his letter.

Erekat delivered the letter, which was dated December 28, to activists of “The Campaign for the Right to Re-Entrance to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

The activists are mostly citizens of Western nations of Palestinian origin, or are married to Palestinians who reside in the territories.

The letter details new procedures that the Defense Ministry will take in order to allow Palestinians of Western citizenship (mostly Americans) to enter the territories and stay for a period of time.

The activists said that the new rules do not solve the crisis, which they say started in 2006 when Israel preventing thousands of American or European citizens of Palestinian origin from entering the West Bank. Most of these citizens were born in the West Bank and their residency status was terminated by Israel.

The activists maintain that they know of at least 14 foreign citizens who only last week were denied entrance to the territories. Some of them were even held in custody at Ben Gurion Airport for 4-5 days. Others received entrance for only a month, as opposed to the three month stay that Mishlav wrote to Erekat.

Foreign Nationals still denied entry to West Bank by Israel

by Mohammed Mar’i, January 16th

Although Lana K. is an American national, and a mother of 2 children, she was denied entry on January 3rd and again on January 9th by the Israeli Occupation Forces ([IOF). Lana is married to a Palestinian and has been living with her family in Nablus for 10 years and used to renew her visa periodically. When Lana was first forced to return to Jordan, her children, carrying their Israeli-issued Palestinian residency IDs, were refused re-entry into Jordan. The children were permitted transit via the Israeli-controlled Allenby Bridge and their father arrived from Nablus to take them back to Nablus. Despite the new Israeli entry procedures announced nearly 2 weeks ago, Lana’s attempts to join her family in the West Bank failed.

In a letter delivered to chief Palestinian negotiator, Dr. Saeb Erakat on December 28, 2006, the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (CoGAT), Major General Yossef Mishlav states changes in Israel’s policy of denying entry to foreign nationals traveling to the West Bank. The letter states that foreign nationals from countries that have “visa agreements with Israel” may enter the West Bank but “they are required to keep the military commander’s consent form with his or her passport.” The letter further explains that a restricted number of foreign nationals will be ‘eligible’ to apply for temporary entry into the West Bank as well as periodic visa renewals.

Fadah Ihlal Thum is another case of suffering due to the Israeli policy. She came to live in the West Bank in 2001. She is married to a local Palestinian and has a five-month-old baby. Fadah is studying at Bir Zeit University and is one of Bir Zeit’s best students. She is in her final year and has twice received Bir Zeit’s rare and prestigious ‘honor’ award. She has a bright future ahead of her if she is able to complete her degree in French and English, particularly as she already fluently speaks Arabic and Portuguese.

Fadah had been renewing her visa internally as is permitted to some residents until her last renewal in September 2006 when, along with hundreds of others, she was suddenly given a ‘last permit’ stamp on her visa and was forced to leave her home, husband and baby in December. She went to Jordan for four days with her husband and baby. When she returned, the (IOF) allowed her husband and baby to enter while she was ordered to return to Jordan. “When my husband took the baby who was sick at the moment, and put my luggage in the returning bus I burst into tears” Fadah said. “They allowed me to enter just for seven days, and know I have to leave in order to renew my visa” she added. Fadah fears that once she leaves, Israel won’t allow her re-entry.

The West Bank’s Bir Zeit University also suffered from the Israeli policy. The Bir Zeit University Right to Education Campaign in a press release on 6 January 2007 said that the Israeli ” policy has brought tremendous insecurity to Bir Zeit University and its financial and academic well being.”

In addition to two of Bir Zeit’s faculty staff, Somida Abbas and Bahgat Taiam who are already outside and have ‘denied entry’ stamped in their passports, the University fears the risk of being unable to continue teaching in some fields by losing irreplaceable lecturers or about 383 students who fear deportation or prison sentences if they are caught at checkpoints.

The Arabic language and culture program is particularly at risk as it is entirely self-sufficient and dependent on their foreign students’ access to the University. In the last term alone, four students were not allowed to complete their studies as they were not allowed to enter or re-enter the OPT. The program is also a major source of emergency funds for the university, which has recently come into use to cover staff salaries since the economic blockade after the 2006 elections. Since Israel’s restrictions on access to Palestinian education, applications for the next term’s course fell by 50 percent – taking with it 50 percent of the program’s income.

The Campaign for Right to Entry/Re-entry, based in Ramallah, regarded the new Israeli policy in a press conference in Ramallah “as a rare moment where the Israeli Authorities acknowledge in writing the severe humanitarian crisis brought on by Israeli policies of denying foreign nationals the right to family reunification and entry to the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt)”. But it considered that Mishlav’s letter “leaves many questions unanswered and the crisis unresolved.

The Campaign said that “several foreign nationals with family in the oPt have been denied entry under circumstances that indicate,the implementation of the newly announced procedures remains arbitrary, abusive and internationally unlawful”, and that the “procedures for granting residency to foreign nationals whose life and livelihood is in the oPt remain unanswered” it added.

The Campaign also considered that the “CoGAT’s” letter to Erekat “does not offer a solution to the thousands of individuals who have remained in the oPt after the expiry of their permits, fearing they would be denied re-entry. The notice also fails to indicate if foreign nationals seeking entry into occupied East Jerusalem or the Gaza Strip will be eligible to apply for temporary admission or visa extensions”.

Israel is refusing to consider over 120,000 applications for family unification, forcing many families to relocate abroad. Together with many foreign nationals who have established their primary business or professional activities in the West Bank, or otherwise aspire to build their lives in the West Bank, these new procedures place them in a state of continuous uncertainty under constant threat of expulsion and exclusion.

Whereas the new Israeli policy regarding entry to foreign nationals traveling into the West Bank, applies to nationals from countries ‘friendly’ to Israel, the Israeli policy towards nationals from enemy-classified countries or those that do not have ” visa agreements with Israel”, which includes tens of thousands of foreigners, including 60,000 Jordanian-born women, as well as women from other Arab countries, Russia and the Ukraine, is vague. Israel used to grant them six -months permits. However, Israel stopped granting them family unification approvals after the outbreak of the second intifada.

Faruoq, from the Salfeet area, has been engaged to a Palestinian relative residing in Jordan and bears its nationality. Since his fiancée doesn’t have a Palestinian ID, and wasn’t granted a visiting permit, Farhat postponed his wedding several times. He filed an application for unification with his fiancée but was denied by Israel several times.” I have been engaged for a long time”, he said. “If the situation doesn’t change and my fiancée doesn’t get a permit perhaps we will have to get divorced”, he added.

* (Mohammed Mar’i is a freelance Palestinian journalist based in Ramallah, Occupied Palestine. He can be reached at mmaree63@gmail.com.)

Campaign for Right to Entry Press Conference

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

by the Campaign for the Right to Entry,

The Campaign for Right to Entry/Re-entry will be holding a press conference on the new developments in Israel’s denial of entry policy

The Campaign for Right of Entry/Re-entry will provide the notice recently issued by the Israeli Authorities that changes Israel’s policy of denying entry to foreign nationals traveling into the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). The notice outlines new procedures regarding access to the West Bank for foreign nationals.

The Campaign regards this as a rare moment where the Israeli Authorities acknowledge in writing the severe humanitarian crisis brought on by Israeli policies of denying foreign nationals the right to family reunification and entry to the oPt. Yet the crisis directly affecting over 45,000 foreign nationals remains unresolved.

The Campaign will present an analysis of the recent developments .
First hand stories from foreign nationals denied entry and renewal since the new policies were announced will be heard – private interviews will be available upon request.
The Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid will present a legal analysis of the new document and policies.

Location: Palestinian Media Center (PMC), Ramallah
Al-Quds-Nablus St. , AL -Abraj Al-Watanieh Bldg.,3rd fl. Al Bireh 02-2407721-5
Time: Tuesday, January 16th at 11:00 AM
Transportation will be available to the Press Conference in Ramallah from the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem at 10:15 AM. Please call Subha on 0599-644868 to reserve a seat on the bus.
Translation from Arabic to English and Hebrew will be available on site.