العربية
HE
العربية
HE
For many years, the State has treated Palestinian residents’ fundamental right to family life as a privilege that may be denied on the basis of political and security considerations. This is also the case when a Palestinian resident chooses to build a life with a foreign-national spouse.
Under the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement, applications to register a foreign spouse in the Palestinian population registry (“regularization applications”) are supposed to be processed by the Palestinian Authority and approved by Israel. In practice, however, as part of Israel’s control over the Palestinian population registry, it is Israel that reviews these applications and decides whether to approve or reject them. Under the policy of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which was incorporated into the 2022 “Procedure for Entry and Residence of Foreigners in the Judea and Samaria Area”, applications are not examined on their individual merits, but rather in accordance with directives issued by the political echelon, including arbitrary and restrictive quotas. In practice, the processing of regularization applications can take many years and often ends in rejection. As a result, thousands of foreign nationals living in the West Bank rely on temporary permits, the renewal of which depends on periodic approval by the Israeli authorities. Despite three petitions filed by HaMoked on the issue and statements by the State that it was conducting staff work to amend the procedure, the original 2022 version of the “Procedure for Entry and Residence of Foreigners in the Judea and Samaria Area” remains in force. It continues to restrict the right to family life of thousands of foreign nationals living in the West Bank and subjects that right to political considerations.
The case of H., a widowed US citizen who married a West Bank resident more than 17 years ago, illustrates the devastating impact of the procedure on the lives of foreign nationals residing in the West Bank. On July 15, 2009, following their marriage, H. and her husband submitted an application to regularize her status so that they could live together in the West Bank. The application, which was transferred to the Israeli side by the Palestinian Authority, went unanswered. In the meantime, the couple built their life in the West Bank and had two sons, who were registered as permanent residents of the West Bank. Throughout those years, H. lived in the West Bank on renewable permits.
On December 20, 2024, more than 15 years after they married, H.’s husband was killed in a car accident. One year later, the Israeli authorities informed her that she was required to leave the West Bank within three months. According to the authorities, because her spouse was no longer alive, she was no longer eligible for renewable stay permits. They maintained that the procedure allows a foreign national to reside in the West Bank alongside a spouse, but not alongside their children.
HaMoked’s petition:
On September 10, 2025, HaMoked, through Adv. Yotam Ben-Hillel, filed a petition for an order nisi, seeking to regularize H.’s status and amend the provisions of the procedure that had led to the violation of her rights and those of many others seeking to maintain family life in the West Bank. In the petition, HaMoked noted that H. has no family remaining in the United States apart from one brother. Her father is deceased and she is not in contact with her mother. In practice, it is her late husband’s parents, who live in the West Bank, who assist her when needed. The petition further noted that her children, now aged 11 and 16, were born and raised in the West Bank and know no other home. Revoking H.’s permits would therefore force her to choose between separating from her children and moving to the United States, or taking her children with her and uprooting them from the center of their lives.
HaMoked further emphasized that H.’s case illustrates the widespread harm caused by the new procedure to the fundamental right of West Bank residents to family life, a right recognized under Israeli and international law and enshrined in the Interim Agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The new procedure, which allows the Israeli authorities to examine applications in accordance with directives issued by the political echelon, “entrenches Israel’s unlawful position that this right is a political bargaining chip that can be traded,” and constitutes a means of direct control over the civilian lives of the Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
On March 18, 2026, the State filed a preliminary response to the petition, arguing that because there was no indication that H.’s application for regularization had reached the Israeli side, the Israeli authorities were under no obligation to consider it. In its response, HaMoked presented the Court with several pieces of evidence showing that the application had been sent to the Israeli side, including a reminder sent by the Palestinian Authority in 2025. Following a renewed examination, the Israeli authorities acknowledged that an application for regularization had indeed been received from the Palestinian Authority, contrary to their initial claim, but dismissed this fact as a minor technical detail and continued to argue that the petition should be deleted.
Instead of examining the application, the Israeli authorities proposed a purported “compromise”: H. would be granted renewable status until her children reach adulthood, after which she would be required to leave the West Bank permanently. In its response of August 27, 2026, HaMoked stressed that this proposal did not provide the relief sought in the petition. The State’s position ignores the application submitted 17 years ago, fails to address H.’s fundamental right to live together with her children, and does not address the fundamental flaws in the procedure that led to this situation in the first place. The Court ordered the State to respond to these arguments by October 11, 2026.
