16 June 2008: Petition: Allow Gazans to visit relatives imprisoned in Israel

On 12 June 2008,  HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, B'Tselem, and other Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations petitioned the High Court of Justice in Israel to allow Gaza residents to visit their relatives being held in Israeli prisons. The petition was filed on behalf of five prisoners from the Gaza Strip who are being held in various detention facilities.

On 6 June 2007, more than a year ago, Israel stopped all such visits. Its principal stated reason was that, “Since Hamas’ military takeover of the Strip, there is no Palestinian entity with which it is possible to coordinate the security of movement through the crossings, which are now controlled by terrorist entities.” In fact, these visits have always been coordinated through the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is willing to continue coordinating the visits and calls for the visits to begin anew. The visits were never coordinated directly between Israel and any Palestinian official.  

For two years after implementation of the disengagement plan in August 2005, the visits continued as they had previously, organized by the ICRC. Families of prisoners/ detainees submitted requests at ICRC offices, which forwarded them to the Israeli military commander. The military commander responded to the ICRC, which forwarded the response to the applicant. The ICRC also organized the transportation, at its expense, in coordination with the military commander and under strict security control. The visitors were carefully checked at Erez Crossing before entering Israeli territory and prior to entering the prison, the buses carrying the visitors were escorted by security forces from the moment they entered Israeli territory, and the visitors were not allowed to get off the bus until they reached the prison.

Israel granted requests to visit based on strict criteria and subject to the military’s discretion as to security needs. Persons entitled to visit were spouses, parents, grandparents, sisters, and daughters. Sons were also allowed to visit if they were under the age of 16 or over 45 years of age. Sons aged 16-45 were allowed to visit their imprisoned parent twice a year, with brothers in this age group being allowed one visit a year. These criteria were extremely restrictive and arbitrary, and failed to meet Israel’s obligation to enable visits with prisoners and detainees.

On 6 June 2007, the army decided, unilaterally, to cease all these visits. In addition to the reason mentioned above, the army gave two reasons for its action. One was that the political-security cabinet decided, on 9 September 2007, not to allow persons to leave the Gaza Strip. The other reason, given unofficially, was that Hamas prevents Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier it is holding captive, from receiving visitors.

Over the past year, HaMoked and the ICRC have fought diligently, but unsuccessfully, to enable family visits.

The right to family visits with detainees and prisoners is a fundamental right, both of the detainees/ prisoners and of their families, and is enshrined in Israeli and international law. This basic right results from the perception of a person as a social creature, who lives in a family and community framework. Preventing family visits with detainees gravely infringes the fundamental right of the relatives and the detainee to family life. In addition, cancelling the visits constitutes collective punishment, which is prohibited under Israeli and international law. 

In addition to B'Tselem and HaMoked, the other organizations that joined the petition are A-Dameer, Gisha, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Yesh Din, the Gaza Mental Health Center, Physicians for Human Rights, and Defence for Children International-Palestine.