B'Tselem: Separation of Families

Since the beginning of the second intifada, Israel has frozen family unification in cases in which one of the spouses is a foreign resident. In addition, Israel has ceased issuing visitor's permits, which enabled families to live together legally in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

As a result of the freeze policy, tens of thousands of foreign spouses of Palestinians, mostly women, have faced a cruel choice: leave the Occupied Territories and not be allowed to return to their spouses and children, or stay illegally, without a status and under constant threat of deportation, making them prisoners in their own villages and homes.




Israeli policies target Palestinian families
Ida Audeh, The Electronic Intifada, September 18, 2007
Palestinian citizens in Israel are targeted by legislation that violates their rights in similar ways. In May 2002, the Israeli Knesset enacted Government Decision #1813, thereby freezing all unification applications for the West Bank or Gazan spouse of an Israeli citizen or permanent resident. The 2003 Law of Nationality and Entry into Israel (Temporary Order 2003) effectively denies Israeli citizens the right to marry Palestinians from the occupied territories and to live with their spouses in Israel. These laws violate international legal covenants which affirm the fundamental right to privacy and family life when Palestinian citizens of Israel are denied this on the basis of the ethnicity of their spouses.

Ramallah mon amour
Lily Galili, Ha'aretz, 21/09/2007
Like other women from abroad who have married Palestinians from the territories, Tatiana Yunis is an illegal resident in her own home, who lacks status in her new homeland, is persecuted and deprived of her rights.

Next week the High Court of Justice will discuss a petition filed by several such women against the State of Israel in the wake of the official freeze on the process of family reunification among residents of the territories, which has been explained as stemming from "diplomatic considerations."

B'TSELEM: 24.9.07: High Court orders state to reconsider freeze on family unification in the West Bank and Gaza
The State of Israel will inform its High Court of Justice within sixty days if it will change its policy on family unification in the West Bank and Gaza .

Currently, the authorities do not consider any requests made by Palestinians in these areas to live with their foreign spouses.

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July 2006 - Joint report with Hamoked - Perpetual Limbo: Israel's Freeze on Unification of Palestinian Families in the Occupied Territories

Palestinian families forced to live in state of perpetual limbo, say Israeli human rights organisations
Ma'an News, 25 / 08 / 2006
Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Palestinian children are forced to live in single-parent households as a result of Israel's policy freezing Palestinian family unification in the occupied Palestinian territories. This is what the Israeli human rights organisations B'Tselem and HaMoked, that fight for the rights of Palestinians, concluded in a report entitled "Perpetual Limbo" on 15 August 2006.

The report is aimed at the Israeli public, who the organisations say are unaware of this widespread phenomenon.

The report states: "For almost six years, since the beginning of the second intifada, in September 2000, Israel has forbidden Palestinians of the Occupied Territories from living with their spouses who are foreign residents. Israel also prohibits the foreign family members from visiting the Occupied Territories. Israel refuses to process the more than 120,000 requests for family unification that have been submitted during this period".

This report deals only with family unifications in the occupied Palestinian territories, not in Israel. It directly affects Palestinians who wish to live with their foreign spouses in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

As the report continues, "Israel holds exclusive power over the ability of these families to live together. Only Israel can approve requests for family unification and visitor's permits, given its control over the Palestinian population registry, and its control over the border crossings into the West Bank.

Even following the disengagement, Israel retains complete control over family unification in the Gaza Strip as well. Israel continues to control the Gaza population registry, and spouses and children of Palestinians who do not carry a Palestinian identity card are forbidden from entering Gaza through the Rafah crossing. Instead they must enter through a border crossing controlled by Israel".

B'Tselem and HaMoked end the report by calling upon the Israeli government to immediately begin processing the requests for family unification and visitor's permits.