Our offices are greatly disappointed by the meager number of Palestinian ID cards that Israel agreed to issue as part of an agreement recently reached with the Palestinian Authority. Israel has agreed to approve only 700 applications for family unification from a group of tens of thousands of applications currently pending. As part of a political gesture to the Palestinian Authority, Israel will also approve requests to register Palestinians who have been living in the West Bank for many years without legal status, where the applicants’ parents had applied for their registration after they turned 16. In addition, Israel agreed to change the registered address of Palestinians residing in the West Bank for many years whose registered address is Gaza. Such persons will now be able to continue to live in the West Bank without fear of deportation to Gaza.
Over the last 12 years, Israel has only approved a very small number of requests for family unification between Palestinians and their foreign spouses. Over the last several years, our firm has filed numerous petitions to Israel’s High Court of Justice challenging Israel’s policy of approving family unification applications exclusively in “extreme humanitarian circumstances.” These court petitions are still pending.
Many of the applications approved in Israel’s most recent gesture include applications filed by our clients. We will continue demanding that additional applications be approved and that Israel’s policy regarding family unification in general be overturned. The right of Palestinians to family life is a basic human right that cannot be traded as a bargaining chip.
For the Palestinian Authority’s Official Announcement about the Gesture
For Amira Hass’ article in “Haaretz”
For Article by Aaron Boxerman and Judah Ari Gross in the “Times of Israel”