For years
Israel refused to update in the population registry the address of two youths, born in the Gaza Strip and living in the West Bank from infancy, and treated them as “illegal aliens” at their own home.
In view of the state’s insistence that the solution in the youths’ case existed in the seven-year-long “West Bank settlement procedure” – throughout which they would have to meet the requirements for receiving permits of stay in the West Bank – the
High Court of Justice (HCJ) advised the state, in the framework of HaMoked’s petitions, to drop the demand for stay permits, with all the complex bureaucracy it entailed, and update the youths’ registered address to correspond to reality, provided there was no security or criminal preclusion to doing so.
Following the court’s recommendation, the
state announced in the hearing of November 24, 2016, that the two youths’ address would be updated on June 16, 2017, in the absence of a security or criminal preclusion. This arrangement was given the force of a judgment.
On June 28, 2017, the
state announced that the
youths’ address had been changed from Gaza to Qalqiliya District in the West Bank. After living for years as foreigners in their country, without stability and a sense of security, the two can finally maintain their lives without being repeatedly hassled, bothered or detained on reaching military checkpoints inside the West Bank.
