Center for the Defence of the Individual - Following HaMoked's petition, the Israel Prison Service has released a prisoner to his West Bank home, despite his registered Gaza address: the state announced in court that this followed a binding policy undertaken in the context of a previous petition by HaMoked
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חזרה לעמוד הקודם
03.02.2015

Following HaMoked's petition, the Israel Prison Service has released a prisoner to his West Bank home, despite his registered Gaza address: the state announced in court that this followed a binding policy undertaken in the context of a previous petition by HaMoked

On January 22, 2015, HaMoked contacted the Israel Prison Service (IPS) to inquire the planned place of release of a Palestinian prisoner living in Qalqiliya who was to finish serving his sentence a week later, on January 29, 2015. In a phone conversation, the IPS informed HaMoked that owing to the prisoner's Gaza address listing in Israel's copy of the Palestinian population registry, the prisoner would be released to the Gaza Strip – this, despite the fact that for the last 15 years or so, he has been living in the West Bank.

HaMoked contacted the IPS again to demand the prisoner be released to the West Bank, and recalled that ahead of his previous prison release, after HaMoked had petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ), the military had acknowledged that the prisoner was maintaining his life in the West Bank, and ordered his release there. At the same time, HaMoked also requested the military to instruct the IPS again to release the prisoner to the West Bank.

On January 27, 2015, after its additional appeals to the military were also left unanswered, HaMoked filed an urgent petition to the HCJ to instruct the IPS to release the prisoner to the West Bank. HaMoked argued that Israel was obligated to release the prisoner in the area of residence, and recalled that Israel had previously undertaken not to expel to Gaza individuals who had moved to the West Bank before Israel concluded its "disengagement" from the Gaza Strip, on September 12, 2005.

That same day, the court issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the prisoner's expulsion to Gaza until his date of release, at which time the state was to deliver its response to the petition.

On January 29, 2015, the state notified the HCJ that it had been decided that the prisoner would be released to the West Bank. The state clarified that this was not an exceptional decision, but part of the policy it had undertaken in the context of a previous petition by HaMoked. The man was released on schedule and returned to his family home in Qalqiliya.