In April 2011, when he turned 16, the teenager went with his mother to the Palestinian Ministry of Interior in Qalqiliya to receive his first identity card. They were surprised to find that in the register, he was listed in a Gaza-Strip address, although he has been living with his parents in the West Bank since the age of 3. The boy filed an address-change notice to the Palestinian Office of Civilian Affairs, which then sent to the Israeli side a request to update the address in Israel's copy of the Palestinian population register, but months passed by with no reply.
It should be noted that since 2000, Israel has been refusing, without exception, to update in its copy of the register changes of address of Palestinian residents from Gaza to the West Bank, according to update-notices it receives from the Palestinian Authority (PA); this, in complete contradiction to the interim agreement between Israel and the PLO (the Oslo Accord), whereby the PA has complete control over address updating, and Israel is required to verify that its copy of the register is correct and identical to the original Palestinian register. Moreover, in recent years Israel began labeling Palestinians living in the West bank who are still registered in Gaza-Strip addresses, as "illegal aliens" in the West Bank, thus, at risk of instant deportation to Gaza. In May 2010, HaMoked, together with other human rights organizations, filed a general petition in the matter to the High Court of Justice (
HCJ 4019/10). In 2011, following the petition and as part of
a political gesture to the Middle-East Quartet, Israel undertook to accept the address changes of some 5,000 West-Bank Palestinians who were registered as Gaza residents, provided they had relocated to the West Bank prior to July 31, 2007.
In January 23, 2013,
HaMoked filed a petition to the HCJ demanding to amend the youth's address so as to reflect reality. HaMoked stressed that so long as the petitioner remains registered in a Gaza address, his freedom of movement is limited: every time he passes through one of the checkpoints scattered all over the West Bank, he is likely to be detained and questioned about his allegedly illegal presence and residence in the West Bank, and worse – he faces the risk of irrevocable deportation to the Gaza Strip, where he has nothing and no-one. HaMoked stated that as a result, the petitioner has avoided leaving the area of his town, and his ambitions and future plans have been on hold. HaMoked also stressed that as the petitioner had moved to the West Bank back in 1998, he fulfills the condition of the political gesture.
Following the petition, the HCJ issued an interim order instructing the respondents not deport the petitioner to the Gaza Strip based on his registered address, pending a decision in the petition. Thanks to the court order, the petitioner – constantly forced not to join his high-school trips and study outings – has now been able to participate in a pre-enrollment tour of universities in the West-Bank.
A similar interim order was issued in a
petition on behalf of a Palestinian girl who had relocated to the West Bank as an infant, but whose registered address remains in Gaza due to the policy of Israel.
