11,400
Palestinians Need Permits
To Live In Their Homes
B'Tselem,
23 November 2003
In early October 2003, the OC Central
Command ordered the area between the separation barrier in the northern
section of the West Bank (Stage 1) and the Green Line a closed military
area for an indefinite period of time.
This area, known
as the "seam area," covers a total of 96,000 dunams [4 dunams
= 1 acre], or 1.7 percent of the West Bank. The area includes twelve
Palestinian villages, containing 11,400 residents, and ten settlements,
in which 22,000 people live.
The prohibition
on entering and being in the seam area without a permit from the Civil
Administration, applies only to Palestinians. Israeli citizens, including
settlers living in the seam area, Jews from around the world, and tourists
visiting Israel are allowed to enter and stay in this area as they wish.
By means of several
directives, drafted in the dry wording of legal documents, the defense
establishment has created a new regime in the seam area that will greatly
affect residents of the West Bank in general, and Palestinians residing
in the seam area in particular.
According to the
new directives, all Palestinians over the age of twelve who live in
the seam area will be required to obtain a "permanent resident
permit" from the Civil Administration to enable them to continue
to live in the their homes. Palestinian residents whose request for
a permit is rejected may argue their case before a military committee.
If the committee denies the appeal, they must leave their homes.
The directives do
not state the criteria for obtaining the permit except for the requirement
that the resident provide evidence that he/she resides in the place
"to the satisfaction" of the Civil Administration. The kind
of evidence necessary is unclear, and in effect the Civil Administration
has almost complete discretion to grant or deny the permits. The lack
of clear criteria makes it possible that decisions will be made arbitrarily
and on the basis of extraneous considerations, under the veil of ostensible
legality.
The new regime will
require Palestinians whose families have lived in the seam area for
generations to go to the Civil Administration to seek the permission
to continue to live n their homes and to cultivate their fields, and
to return to the officials on a regular basis to obtain permit renewals.
Thus, the automatic right of a person to live in his own home now becomes
a privilege subject to Israel's discretion. The directive creates an
absurd situation, in that it applies to Palestinians but not to foreigners
on their first visit to Israel who are allowed to enter the seam area
and stay there as they wish.
Residents of the
West Bank who do not live in the seam area will have to obtain special
permits to enter the seam area. Thousands of Palestinians needing to
enter this area for various reasons must enter through gates erected
along the barrier. The new directives create twelve kinds of permits
that will be issued by the Civil Administration. They are based on the
purpose of entry into the closed area: merchants, traders, farmers,
teachers, students, and so on. The applicants will have to compete forms
and present various certificates and documents, depending on the kind
of permit requested. For example, Palestinians with farmland in the
seam area will have to provide "documents indicating the applicant's
rights to the land"; teachers in villages in the seam area will
have to present certificates proving they are authorized teachers. The
permits indicate a certain gate through which the holder of the permit
must cross, and the times of day at which the holder is allowed to pass.
Sleeping over in the seam area, bringing a vehicle into the area, and
transporting merchandise into the area require separate permits.
No criteria have
been set for granting these entry permits. However, it is likely that
every request will be forwarded to Israel's security services, so that
individuals with a "security record" will not be allowed entry.
In an interview with the press, the head of the Ministry of Defense's
Seam Area Administration, Netzach Mashiah, stated that, "if the
son of a farmer has a security record, he will not be allowed to pass.
The farmer must take this into account." Also, obtaining a permit
from the Civil Administration does not ensure that the holder will be
allowed to cross through the gates. When a comprehensive closure is
imposed, all the permits are revoked.
These arrangements
will severly harm the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank that depend
on entry into the seam area to meet daily needs. Past experience indicates
that Israel exploits its ability to refuse to grant movement permits
to Palestinians, to attain improper objectives. For example, Israel
has placed pressure on residents to turn them into collaborators and
has imposed collective punishment on residents of a particular village
for attacks perpetrated against Israelis.
The new regime will
further infringe the human rights of the Palestinian population that
resulted from the government's decision to build the separation barrier
within the West Bank. This decision imprisons Palestinians between the
barrier and the Green Line. Residents in this area, as well as those
who wish to enter the area, will now be dependent on the benevolence
of the defense establishment, even though they are suspected of no wrongdoing.
The directive affects these residents solely because of their poor luck
in living or working east of the route where Israel decided to construct
the barrier.
The new rules create
another dimension in the discriminatory policy that Israel implements
against Palestinians in the West Bank. Currently this regime applies
to only a relatively small percentage of area of the west Bank, however,
it is likely that Israel will extend these rules to other areas in the
west Bank as the construction of the barrier continues.