| Deportations from the West Bank Renewed In summer 1994, Khaula Salem, a young Palestinian woman raised in Jordan, arrived to the West Bank on a visit permit in order to marry Khaled Karmeh from Bethlehem. At the end of October, the newly-wed couple was summoned to the Bethlehem civil administration. On November 3, Khaled met with Captain Gil who informed him that his wife’s visit permit would not be renewed because she does not belong to the population protected by current agreements, and that she has to leave the country immediately. Then, Captain Gil confiscated Khaled’s ID card and told him that he would return it only after his wife’s departure.
Similar summons were issued to approximately 30 persons living in the Bethlehem area; and dozens in the northern West Bank. Palestinian residents of the West Bank, especially those who had married recently, contacted human rights institutions for help. Yehuda Cohen, the officer in charge at Bet El headquarters of the Israeli Civil Administration, claimed that there was no new policy of deportation, that the summons were a personal initiative of local civil administration officers, and that all confiscations of ID cards were illegal. Consequently, confiscated IDs were returned, and human rights lawyers obtained temporary restraining orders for their clients. Much damage was prevented by successful cooperation between the local population and human rights organizations. However, many others were unable to obtain legal assistance, and the initiative resulted in an unknown number of newly-separated Palestinian families. Moreover, those who resisted the measure have had to face frequent and difficult meetings at the Civil Administration, as well as the constant threat of heavy fines and ultimate deportation. In at least one documented case, a husband was frightened into making his wife leave the West Bank, although she has protected status and is eligible for a six-month renewable visit permit and family reunification. Since the wife went to Jordan, the Israeli authorities have refused to correct the mistake. They have rejected the husband’s application for a new visit permit on the grounds that the policy is to issue visit permits only during the summer season.
Temporary restraining orders are not the solution, and the problem remains: the official Israeli stand is that married non-resident spouses do not have a right to stay in the country on renewable visit permits, and that the fact that a compromise was achieved for a certain population (6,000 spouses who entered the country between 1990 and August 1993) does not reflect a principled policy change. |
