Center for the Defence of the Individual - HaMoked petitions the HCJ: revoke an order to deport to Gaza a Palestinian youth who has lived in the West Bank since infancy
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חזרה לעמוד הקודם
08.11.2017

HaMoked petitions the HCJ: revoke an order to deport to Gaza a Palestinian youth who has lived in the West Bank since infancy

On October 15, 2017, the Military Court upheld an order for deportation to Gaza of a Palestinian youth who has lived in the West Bank for the past 21 years, since he had moved there with his family from Gaza, when his was less than a year old – and many years before Israel started demanding permits for stay or “settlement” in the West Bank. The youth was incarcerated by the military in September 2016 and was to be released from prison in May 2017. Shortly before his official release date, he was told by the authorities about the intention to deport him to Gaza upon release from prison based on his listed address in the population registry.

The Military Court ruled that although the youth had entered the West Bank as a minor and lived there from then on, he was no longer a minor and therefore could be defined as an infiltrator. Additionally, based on the security material regarding the youth, he should be deported to Gaza.

On November 7, 2017, HaMoked petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ) to prevent his deportation. In its petition HaMoked asserted as before that the youth cannot be considered an “infiltrator”, as permits of stay in the West Bank existed only from 2007, whereas the youth had moved to the West Bank many years before. HaMoked added that in the relevant period, there was no dispute that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip constitute a single integral unit. HaMoked also asserted that a basic condition for defining a person an “infiltrator” is his being a foreign subject, but in this case no one disputes that the youth is not a foreigner but a life-long resident of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and as such cannot be deemed as someone infiltrating PA territory. As to the security material, HaMoked claimed that the decision that is being challenged does not concern “deportation on security grounds” but “deportation of an infiltrator”, and it must be scrutinized as such.

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