Article74 Magazine

Muhammad Hassan Ali Sweidan, 28, from Nablus, married his cousin, Hanan Sabr Abdel Satter Sudan, 24, who was born in Amman after the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967. They married in 1985, and have been trying ever since to live in Nablus. 
For the first three years of their marriage, Hanan went back and forth, obtaining visitors’ permits and leaving for Jordan when they expired. Their five year old son, Muhammad, was born in Nablus and registered in his father’s identity card; a procedure which will enable him also to become a resident. Their daughter Sirin, aged 4, was born in Nablus in October 1987, children whose mothers are not residents may no longer be registered in their father’s identity cards; they are without documents and often stateless. 

With the beginning of the Intifada, Hanan stopped traveling back and forth; between December 1988 and August 1991, the family remained in Nablus. In Jordan Hanan had been told that since King Hussein had withdrawn Jordan’s claim to the West Bank, her daughter Sirin needed a special seven-month Jordanian passport (good only to travel to the West Bank). She could no longer be registered in her mother’s passport, since she was a Palestinian and her mother a Jordanian. For the same reason, Sirin also had to come to Nablus on a separate visitor’s permit. In August 1991, Muhammad was summoned to the civil administration. There, someone named Uri told him that his wife had violated the law, since she had not renewed her visitor’s permit since 1988. “She must leave the country”, said Uri. “And if she doesn’t, you must pay a NIS 2,000 fine for both your wife’s and Sirin’s residence without valid permit. And even if you pay, Sirin must leave the West Bank.” “My daughter is four years old,” said Muhammad, “I can’t just put her on the bridge.” “If your daughter does not leave the country, we will deport you, your wife, and your daughter”, threatened Uri. He told Muhammad that if he wished to pay he must have the money by 8:00 a.m. the next morning, and that his daughter still had to leave. “I will send the money if you promise that I can have another visitor’s permit,” said Muhammad. “That’s my business. I am the boss here. You will not set conditions on what I do or don’t do,” said Uri. 

Hanan and Sirin left the country. When Muhammad went to obtain another visitor’s permit for them he was told that there were no visitor’s permits at all being given in Nablus. This case is not entirely typical. Most children are registered in their mothers’ visitors’ permits and cannot be deported separately. The situation will change, however, when children born after 1987 reach the age of five and are required to have their own visitors’ permits.