Ramallah: The Israeli regime’s High Court of Justice has refused to accede to a petition by Gaza Strip residents seeking entry into Israel for the purposes of filing lawsuits against the state.
Adalah – The Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights submitted the petition in the interests of four residents of the coastal enclave who are pursuing civil suits against Israel over damages caused to them by the Israeli military forces.
The justices ruled that someone who is not an Israeli citizen or resident has no automatic rights to enter Israeli-claimed territory and that the serious security situation in the Gaza Strip meant that its residents should not be granted entry.
After the decision, the groups which applied to the court responded. “Today’s ruling effectively blocks the access of Gaza residents to Israeli courts, since it confirms the illegal procedure that restricts the constitutional rights of Gaza residents to reach the courts as plaintiffs or witnesses, subject to the needs of the defence of the State Prosecutor’s Office in such cases. This procedure also blocks the access of lawyers from Israel to meet their clients in Gaza. The lack of effective access to the courts today leads to the rejection of civil-damages cases in Israeli courts for lack of representation or the inability of a plaintiff’s witnesses to be present.”
Meanwhile, Israeli army data has shown that since the last September, after the end of the Israeli offensive on Gaza Strip, there has been a 25 per cent rise in the number of Palestinians being apprehended monthly along the Israeli boundaries with the strip.
According to the statistics released by the Israeli army prior to the offensive on Gaza, an average of 13 Palestinians were being caught trying to cross the boundaries each month, but since the beginning of September, a total of 66 attempted to enter Israeli-claimed territory from the Gaza Strip.
Israeli residents around the strip had urged the Israeli army to erect a new fence. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the Palestinians trying to cross the borders have been young and unarmed. When minors are apprehended, they are interrogated and returned to the strip.
According to the Israeli army, most of the Palestinians who tried to enter in 2014 simply wanted to get out of Gaza Strip.
The regime’s army said that even if infiltrating Palestinians were carrying weapon, it is not to attack, but for defence along the way. The Israeli army referred to those infiltrators as ‘desperate’, where the harsh economic conditions in Gaza and the hope for a better future, even if they end up in an Israeli prison, are all reasons for Gazans to try to enter.
