During a conference entitled “For Working to Reunite Dispersed Palestinian Families,” legal experts clarified that Israeli laws and the Oslo Accords treat the Palestinian people not as citizens on their land, but as resident aliens. This statement was made during a conference implemented today by The Center for Women’s Legal Researches, Counselling and Protection (CWLRCP) as part of the project “Dispersed Families in the Conflict of Legislations,” which is being implemented in partnership with the Jerusalem Center for Women and the Women’s Center for Legal and Social Guidance, with funding from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Open Society Foundations (FOSI).

Lawyer Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, explained in a paper on “Israeli Violations of the Rights of Palestinian Families and International Humanitarian Law” that the issue of dispersed families is not only a humanitarian issue, but a political one par excellence. He stated that Palestinians residing in the 1948 occupied territories are closer to being residents than citizens and do not have nationalities. He added that since 1948 and until 1967, the issue of nationality was denied to them. Sourani further explained that since Israel occupied the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank in 1967, the whole world considered these occupied territories, but Israel acknowledged that it was a wartime occupying power for only 43 days. After that, Israel denied that it was a wartime occupying power, and therefore the four Geneva Conventions did not apply to the occupied territories, which are either called “administered” or “disputed.”

He continued, “After the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, anyone who obtained a travel document was granted it by the occupation for the purpose of movement only. There is a clause called ‘nationality’ in the Palestinian passport, on which two words are written: ‘unclear nationality,’ so we, as Palestinians, carry an unclear nationality.” Regarding the issue of citizenship, Sourani stated, “Palestinians are resident aliens, and residency is determined only by the occupation. The occupation receives a weekly birth registry from the governments in Gaza and the West Bank, and this is the most dangerous document submitted to the Israeli occupation.” He added, “When analyzing the issue of citizenship and what the Oslo Accords provided, it was found that citizenship does not exist, and we are now called residents, and residency is determined only by the Israeli occupation.”

Zainab Al-Ghunaimi, Director of The Center for Women’s Legal Researches, Counselling and Protection (CWLRCP), presented an advocacy paper on “For Working to Reunite Dispersed Palestinian Families,” which aimed to advocate for Palestinian women whose rights are violated as a result of the different laws and procedures imposed by the Israeli occupation state. The paper included a number of demands to the United Nations, the Security Council, and all international and Arab institutions, including:

• Condemning Israeli racist policies for not complying with international laws and agreements.
• Obligating Israel to apply the law of military occupation, which stipulates that the laws and legislation relating to the lives of civilians under occupation should not be changed, in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the protection of civilians in time of war of 1949, by holding Israel accountable for its responsibilities and obligating it to fulfill its obligations arising from the Convention, and respecting and applying the standards stipulated in international human rights conventions and covenants.
• Placing the United Nations before its international responsibilities and obligations in averting the scourge of armed conflict from women and children as the body that issued Resolution 1325.
• Calling on the United Nations and all its bodies to pressure the Israeli occupation state immediately to abolish all racist laws and procedures, including military orders, against the Palestinian population in the occupied Palestinian territories.
• Pressuring the Israeli occupation state to bear its responsibility as an occupying power under international law by enabling women to obtain the same document as their husband or vice versa as soon as the marriage contract is concluded, without legal obstacles that limit this or link obtaining the same document to a request from the husband or link it to age.
• Obligating the occupation authorities to enable women to obtain their right to see their children and custody of their children, regardless of the wife’s place of residence, and to enable women to move freely between all geographical areas without any obstacles.
• Obligating the occupation authorities to implement the judgments obtained by women in all regions without obstacles, and to remove all obstacles for women to implement these judgments.

On the national level, we demand that the Palestinian National Authority and the government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip work to:

• Take responsibility towards Palestinian women, and adopt clear strategies to confront family dispersal due to different laws.
• End the Palestinian division, which causes dispersal and fragmentation in the Palestinian social and political fabric and contributes to delaying the issue.
• Unify the laws in the areas of the Palestinian Authority and between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
• Document, survey, and monitor violations committed by Israel against Palestinians, and provide assistance to victims of Israeli violations.
• Find special means and health insurance for women, especially those residing in the city of Jerusalem, who do not enjoy any health insurance.

For his part, lawyer Jamil Sarhan, Director of the Gaza Program – Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights, said in a paper on “Israeli Laws and Violation of the Rights of Palestinian Families to Movement and Travel in Multi-Document Marriage”: “Reuniting families is not only a humanitarian issue, but a natural extension of the idea of displacement and the usurpation of land, as in 1948 there was a forced displacement of approximately (750,000) Palestinians, accompanied by measures to deepen the forced displacement.” He added, “What happens to families from problems today is an extension of that displacement, and it is not an impediment to movement, but an Israeli methodology applied through Israeli legislative tools.”

He added that the Law on Entry to Israel issued in 1994 granted the withdrawal of residency permits and the failure to grant them to those who wish, according to flexible criteria, in addition to a number of conditions and criteria regarding forced displacement in what was called the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law. This decision was issued in 2002, which allowed the closure of many issues, including not accepting requests for family reunification, pending requests are rejected, and life partners are not allowed to submit residency applications. This confirms that we are facing an Israeli vision that says that the state is Jewish, and therefore these Israeli policies and laws are uprooting and displacing our people and obstructing the movement of Palestinian citizens within their lands.