| The Case of the Month: An Odyssey with a Lucky Ending Hassan Muhammad Hassan Shahin, from Jabalya refugee camp (Gaza), married his cousin, Amal Muhammad Hussein Abu Watfe, in Saudi Arabia in 1980. His wife was born in Gaza, but had left in 1966. The couple has five children: Muhammad (10), Reem (9), Ahmad (7), Fatmeh (5), and Miryam (3). None of the children are registered on their father’s identity card.
Immediately after the Gulf War they left Saudi Arabia, first to the Sudan, then to Libya. From Libya they flew to Egypt, since Hassan had left Gaza through Egypt and must re-enter that way. But Egypt refused to let Amal, holder of an Egyptian travel document and a visitor’s permit to Gaza, and her children in.
The family spent a week at the Egyptian airport before returning to Libya. Amal’s sister managed to obtain a visitor’s permit routed through Jordan. The family then flew to Amman. Amal and her children were allowed three days for transit; they entered the Occupied Territories on July 24, 1991.
Hassan returned to Egypt and entered Gaza through Rafah. The family had spent months and over US $ 10,000 in going from Saudi Arabia to Gaza.
When, on June 22, 1992, Hassan tried to renew Amal’s permit, the civil administration confiscated her visitor’s permit and Egyptian travel document and said that she had to be deported. They also said that they would fine her NIS 5,000 for overstaying.
Because of the suspension of deportations from the West Bank, the legal advisor’s office in the Gaza Strip instructed the civil administration to return Amal’s documents. Hassan was told that Amal should leave, but she remains, undocumented, but apparently somewhat protected.
According to Hassan, a number of families from Jabalya in similar situations have been deported to Jordan during the past year. |
