Israeli High Court will hear petition against Israel's policy of dividing families in West Bank

Monday September 24, 2007 01:39 by Btselem.org - The Israeli Information Center For Human Rights in the Occupied Territories

On 24 September, the High Court of Justice will hear four petitions filed by HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual on behalf of families from the West Bank contending infringement of their right to family life.

BTselem

The court's decision will determine the outcome of forty-three other petitions that HaMoked has filed on this issue. All of the cases involved families in which one of the spouses is a resident of the West Bank or Gaza Strip and the other is a foreigner who does not have formal status in the area. Because of the importance of the issue, eight other human rights joined as petitioners.

Since the beginning of the second intifada, Israel has frozen family unification in cases in which one of the spouses is a foreign resident. In addition, Israel has ceased issuing visitor's permits, which enabled families to live together legally in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

As a result of the freeze policy, tens of thousands of foreign spouses of Palestinians, mostly women, have faced a cruel choice: leave the Occupied Territories and not be allowed to return to their spouses and children, or stay illegally, without legal status and under constant threat of deportation, making them prisoners in their own villages and homes.

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