ei: Banning of internationals and foreign passport-holding Palestinians (25 June 2006 onwards)

"Israel has long been denying entry to scores of internationals (including foreign passport-holding Palestinians) -- a policy that has been intensified in recent months. During April, after having lived in Ramallah for a year and a half and staying on a tourist visa that I would renew every three months, I was denied entry to the West Bank from Jordan via the Israeli-controlled Allenby Bridge land crossing, and given no documentation to indicate why I was being turned away. On the Jordanian side of the bridge, security officials there told me that scores of international passport-holders -- Palestinian-Americans in particular -- were being denied entry into the West Bank. I was again denied entry a month and a half later at Ben Gurion Airport." [Read Maureen's story]

22 June 2006: Israeli media reports the Banning policy

Ma'ariv: "ISM foreign protestors to be expelled", Ma'ariv (22 June 2006) - "According to the plan, the IDF will declare the Judea and Samaria [EI Note: ie. the West Bank and Gaza] closed to foreign nationals."

The International Campaign

The Campaign for the Right to Entry/Re-entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territory - A volunteer group of individuals and families affected by the current Israeli occupation authorities' policy that denies entry to foreign passport holders to the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) via the Israeli unilaterally controlled international border crossings to the oPt.

Access for Peace: A banner for human rights activists and volunteers who have been denied entry to the oPt to return

News and Analysis

Right to family life denied, Amnesty International (23 March 2007)

Al-Haq response to recent Israeli government COGAT briefing, Al-Haq (7 February 2007)

EI EXCLUSIVE: Leaked Israeli document gives frightening glimpse of apartheid, Ali Abunimah (25 January 2007)

Don't take right to education for granted, Sobhi Samour (29 January 2007)

EI EXCLUSIVE: Leaked Israeli document gives frightening glimpse of apartheid, Ali Abunimah (25 January 2007)

Changes to denial of entry policy fail to resolve crisis, The campaign for Right to Entry/Re-entry (17 January 2007)

Denial of entry and its impact on higher education, Birzeit University Right to Education Campaign (6 January 2006)

Travel Warning: Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine, Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-Entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (11 December 2006)

Israel refuses to process visa renewal requests, Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-Entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (6 December 2006)

Israel issues last permits to foreigners, splitting families, Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-Entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (22 November 2006)

Visa regime splits Palestinian families, IRIN (7 November 2006)

The Demographic and Economic War against Palestinians, Samar Assad (5 November 2006)

Pummeling the victim, Rima Merriman (3 November 2006)

Palestinian Brain Drain, Rima Merriman (31 October 2006)

Denial of Entry Rice's Probe and the Israeli Administration, Rima Merriman (17 October 2006)

Getting the world out on NPR, Rima Merriman (19 September 2006)

Dissecting Israel's freeze on visas, Rima Merriman (13 September 2006)

Let My People In, Rima Merriman (4 September 2006)

Israel's latest bureaucratic obscenity, Jonathan Cook (12 July 2006)

Israel bars Palestinian Americans for first time since 1967, Amira Hass, Ha'aretz (10 July 2006)

6-5 Majority of Supreme Court Approves Most Racist Law in State of Israel, Adalah (14 May 2006)

Diaries: Those affected by Israel's unwritten policy

"Israelis should not be scared of whether people like me enter Palestine or not. If I did enter, what would I do? Take another photograph of their humiliating checkpoints, or maybe write another story about listening to their tanks rumble down the streets during an invasion. These things are not new. They have gone on since 1948 and even before then. They may ban people like me from entering, but that won't prevent me from doing what I can to help expose one of the longest-standing injustices of our time."

"A meaningless stamp", Matthew Cassel writing from Amman, Jordan (9 July 2007)

"My father is Palestinian but he had lived all his childhood and even after in the United States, so he doesn't have a Palestinian ID. In this case we all know that he needs to renew his visa every three months. This was not a problem before the Israelis started not to renew the visas for most of the people, it became you and your chance, and I realized that my father can be forbidden from entering Palestine any time he tries to renew his visa."

"The end of the world is something to do with my father", Areen Bahour writing from al-Bireh/Ramallah, occupied Palestine (31 May 2007)

"My wife is not the only one to have been given an ultimatum this last week. Dozens of other wives, husbands and children who have been living in the West Bank for years, renewing their Israeli-issued 'visitors' permits every three months, have been given short extensions, none of which exceed the end of this year. Children will have to be taken out of schools and will be separated from their parents. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and grandparents of the cherished local extended families will be torn apart. Hundreds of others are also waiting their fate in the coming days and weeks."

Why is Israel separating me from my wife?, Ghassan Abdallah writing from Ramallah, occupied Palestine (6 December 2006)

"We arrived at the airport and we were asked to stay aside. An officer approached us and started to pepper us with questions. We never encountered such a treatment before. I was given a visa since I have an Egyptian passport. In other words, I am an Egyptian-American not a Palestinian-American. Ibrahim was made to wait for two hours and then he was told he was denied entry. When Ibrahim came to me, the officer realized we were together, and she snatched the passport from me and said, 'You are together? Oh, then you can't enter either.' So she denied me entry too. We were told that we are lucky that there were seats in the next day's flight back to Jordan!"

Waiting to return to where "the air is different", Mayssoun Sukarieh writing from Amman, Jordan (30 September 2006)

One man stopped me and told me something that I had heard before and didn't want to hear again: "Welcome to Jordan." I was back in Aqaba, with Palestine in front of me but farther away than ever. I went through the Jordanian border once again, my bags feeling lighter than before. The tears were still in my eyes, but my legs were stronger. What the Israelis on the other side don't understand that every time that they refuse a Palestinian at the border they recognize that the Palestinians are there. They use those guns to keep something that doesn't belong to them.

"We don't want more Palestinians here!", Nadia Hasan writing from Amman, Jordan (15 September 2006)

The day after our deportation, my mother put in an application to restore an old ID card of mine that had lapsed in the 1980s, and each day she is given a promise that it will soon be available. We wait. Each morning, I have a slight sense of anticipation, hoping that this will be the day our luck starts to turn. And each day I am disappointed. The afternoons and evenings are when depression sets in; I feel trapped and completely powerless, at the mercy of faceless and indifferent Israelis (and perhaps Palestinian middlemen) who are deciding my fate. Perhaps deciding is too purposeful a word -- maybe they are just letting it slide away.

Deported from our own homeland, Ida Audeh writing from Amman, Jordan (10 September 2006)

The Israelis did not even give me the chance to pick up my belongings from my apartment in Birzeit. I arrived back home in Vienna with just the bag that I had used for the trip to Amman. Apart from that I had to buy a new flight ticket, new clothes, pay for a hotel, etc. Due to this event my fiance and I were prevented from getting married as planned. We had to make a lot of efforts so that he could come to Europe so that we might marry here. I also cannot visit his family anymore; our family life will always be influenced by this event.

My Palestinian husband and I cannot live together in the West Bank, Maria Pedevilla writing from Vienna, Austria (6 September 2006)

The Occupying State of Israel has decided that I have been living with my family and two daughters long enough. After being given a one month tourist visa when I entered through the Israeli border to reach the Palestinian areas (which is the only way to enter), the Israelis have responded to my request for a three month extension by saying one more month would be more than enough. Not only that, but they were kind enough to relieve me from the humiliation and agony of requesting another extension to remain with my family by hand writing, in Arabic, Hebrew and English, LAST PERMIT, on the visa.

The silent transfer: Israel says I've lived with my family long enough, Sam Bahour writing from Al-Bireh, occupied West Bank (2 September 2006)

As I entered Palestine recently, I saw for myself how Palestinians with American, British, and even Brazilian passports are being turned away from the West Bank and back into Jordan by the Israelis. These are Palestinians with family in the West Bank, or even who themselves were born here, and they are not being allowed a simple visit with their loved ones. And don't forget the parentheses: under Israel's "law of return," any Jewish person from anywhere, with no connection whatsoever to the land aside from ancient and biblical claims, can "make aliya" and start the process of becoming an Israeli citizen simply by showing up at one of these border crossings or the airport.

A European-American, not a Palestinian-American, can visit Palestine, Ben Sharpton (4 August 2006)

"It must be a mistake, the caprice of a clerk at border control," Aadel Samara responded when his wife Enayeh informed him by phone on May 26 that her entry to Israel, through the Sheikh Hussein Terminal (near Beit She'an), was not permitted. There was no reason to suspect anything but an error. After all, throughout their 30 years together this was the drill: Every three months, a day or two before the Israeli tourist visa in her American passport was set to expire, she would go away for a few days - to Jordan, sometimes Cyprus or Egypt, then return with a new visa for another three months.

After 30 years, wife loses right to enter country, Amira Hass, Ha'aretz (11 July 2006)

I do not cherish the idea of being separated from my wife, after 27 years of marriage, by a soldier in Beit El. This colonial settlement, which houses the headquarters of the 'Civil Administration', a euphemism for the military occupation authorities in the West Bank, is located just up the road from where we live, at the edge of Al-Bireh, the twin city of Ramallah. It's just odd that it is so near, yet so far, in many ways.

How Israel is tearing families apart, Ahmed Zaid (23 June 2006)

Banning of international activists and human rights defenders

Keeping the international eyewitnesses out, Rima Merriman (15 June 2006)

Israeli authorities deport Al-Haq human rights defender, Al-Haq (31 May 2006)

British human rights lawyer denied entry to Israel, PCHR (29 May 2006)

Israeli activist bridges worlds, Laila El-Haddad (3 July 2005)

Beating Israel's activist deportation system, this time, K. Flo Razowsky (10 March 2005)

Israeli military murders school children at anti-Wall protest, ISM (4 May 2005)

Israel's Criminalization of Nonviolent Protest, Pat O'Connor (22 February 2005)

Letter from Prison: My Interview with Israel's Shin Bet Intelligence Agency, Pat O'Connor (1 February 2005)

Israel denies entry of Canadian peace activist, CPT (14 March 2004)

PCATI called on Israeli Minister of the Interior to stop deporting peace and human rights activists, PCATI (30 June 2003)

Deported!, Kathy Kern (5 November 2002)

Activism and Advocacy

Protest Israel's visa denial policy, Israeli Committee for Right of Residency (5 December 2006)

Lawsuit against Israel considered by foreign nationals denied entry, Campaign for Right of Entry/Re-Entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (28 November 2006)

ADC documenting Americans denied entry to Israel and OPT, ADC (13 October 2006)

Arab-Americans denied entry into Israel and Palestine, Arab American Institute (6 October 2006)

U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem expresses concern about Israeli refusals to issue visas, CPFPH (1 October 2006)

The Right to Entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, CPFPH (6 September 2006)

Committee formed on right of entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, CPFPH (5 July 2006)

Displaced, deported, and forcibly transfered Palestinians

The process of transfer continues: The Jerusalem Municipality plans to demolish 88 houses in Silwan, East Jerusalem, Jeff Halper (3 June 2005)

Israeli Discriminatory Law Tears Apart Thousands of Families, HRW/AI/ICJ (24 May 2005)

The Nativity Church Deportees' Right to Return, Sami Abu Salem (11 April 2005)

State Department to be Questioned on Silence regarding American Detainees in Israel, Council for the National Interest (16 February 2005)

EU launches new initiative as deportation of Palestinians is extended, Arjan El Fassed (3 November 2004)

Update on unlawful transfer of Palestinians, PCHR (16 October 2003)

Palestinian detainees from the West Bank remain in detention on Erez crossing pending unlawful transfer, PCHR (15 October 2003)

Israeli forces unlawfully transfer 16 Palestinians, PCHR (14 October 2003)

Israel expel
led Palestinian father of five from Jerusalem, JCSER (27 September 2003)

General Assembly demands Israel not deport or threaten safety Arafat, United Nations (19 September 2003)

Israeli rights group: "The threat of expulsion due to the separation barrier", B'Tselem (17 September 2003)

US vetoes Security Council resolution demanding Israel not deport Arafat, United Nations (16 September 2003)

Annan, Security Council call on Israel not to expel Arafat, United Nations (12 September 2003)

Palestinian residents of old city Hebron leave their homes, B'Tselem (19 August 2003)

Israeli military appeal committee defers conclusion of second six-month review of transfer order, PCHR (13 August 2003)

Israel deports Palestinian from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip, PCHR (20 May 2003)

Israel: placing the Palestinian population outside the protection of the law, OMCT (25 July 2002)

'Only transfer will bring peace', Arjan El Fassed (23 April 2002)

Palestinian refugees deported

Audio Interview: From Montreal to Ein el-Hilweh, Stefan Christoff (8 May 2006)

The real meaning of deporting Hamas members of parliament, Jonathan Cook (22 April 2006)

Gaza is still a prison, Patrick O'Connor (17 March 2006)

From Montreal to Ein el-Hilweh: Deportation, Destitution & Dignity, Stefan Christoff (13 July 2005)

Ayoub family's appeal against deportation from Canada accepted, CADPR (1 March 2005)

Stop the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees from Canada, EI/CADPR (8 December 2004)

Bassaleh News Network