Isolation and Control – Israel’s denial of foreign nationals to the oPt

Isolation and Control

Israel’s denial of foreign nationals to the oPt

By Rafaël Rutten, May 23, 2023.

In December 2022, Israel implemented a series of new guidelines for foreigners applying for a visa for the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). The 62 page document titled ‘Procedure for Entry and Residence of Foreigners in the Judea and Samaria Area’, published by the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), outlines extensive requirements for obtaining a long term visa for the oPt.  These requirements severely limit the possibility for foreign nationals to visit, work or study in the oPt. The new procedure has been widely condemned by human rights organisations, educational institutes and Palestinian civil society, because it serves to cut off the oPt from the rest of the world and violates several universal human rights.[i] Through the complex and extensive visa procedures, the Israeli occupation targets specific groups, isolating the oPt by fragmenting families and obstructing foreigners from entering, while simultaneously monitoring Palestinian society and increasing control over Palestinian land. In doing so, Israel violates a plethora of human rights, most notably the right to family life, movement, education and privacy.

Procedure

Restrictions

The new requirements impose many obstacles and restrictions on foreigners, designed to prevent them from staying in the oPt long-term. For example, applications require foreign nationals to divulge extensive personal information, including names and addresses of relatives and acquaintances in the oPt, as well as any land they may own or are entitled to inherit in the future.[ii] Upon entry, they may be subjected to extensive and invasive questioning. These interrogations predominantly target Palestinians living abroad, as well as others with Arab names or backgrounds. They are structurally held and interrogated by border security for hours on end.[iii] Stories of aggressive, intimidating, humiliating and inhuman treatment at the hand of Israeli border security are painfully plentiful. Also, expensive bonds of up to 70.000 shekel (approximately €17.500) may be required, intended to ensure visitors leave the oPt when their visa expires.[iv] Furthermore, foreign nationals married to Palestinians have to apply, even when their home country has a visa exemption agreement with Israel. They are also banned from attempting long-term residence in the oPt and have to leave the country periodically for a temporary visa renewal.[v] Moreover, Israel has increased control over the amount, duration and type of work and study visas, especially for academics. The new procedure allows a maximum of 100 and 150 foreign lecturers and students respectively, limits their duration to five non-consecutive years and grants COGAT the authority to decide which fields of study are permissible.[vi] Finally, citizens of countries who do not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, or citizens of Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Bahrein or South Sudan, are not allowed to enter the oPt under this procedure.[vii] For the over 2 million Palestinian refugees living in Jordan, this means they are officially banned from returning to their homes or visiting their families.

Denial

Besides these restrictions, applications can be denied for any number of reasons. Volunteers of the Right to Enter campaign, a grassroots organisation working to help Palestinian families reunify, aid foreigners who are denied entry and advocate against Israel’s entry procedures, describe the many reasons for denial. According to them, the language of the procedure is explicit and strict, but simultaneously deliberately vague to facilitate wide discretion for the Israeli occupation. Among the reasons for denial provided by COGAT, ‘risk to security and public order’ is most common. This is applied for a wide range of reasons, but especially targets people involved in activism, advocacy or engaged in the Palestinian cause in any way. Also, risk of ‘entrenchment’ and ‘illegal immigration’ is often cited as the basis for denial and is widely used to prevent foreigners from long-term residency in the oPt.[viii] Furthermore, ‘wrong port of entry’ is claimed, even though this is not stated clearly in current regulations. In addition, people are denied when refusing to divulge sensitive personal information to the Israel authorities or are accused of lying in interrogations. Finally, many denied persons are not even given a reason. Arbitrary denial and opaque reasoning are pivotal characteristics of many Israeli policies towards Palestinians, and the visa procedure is no exception.

Effects

Diaspora and families

The procedure and denials isolate Palestinian society through fragmenting families and discouraging and obstructing foreigners from visiting, working and studying long-term in the oPt. Firstly, Palestinian families are separated and fractured. In the 75 years since the Nakba, displacement, dispossession and structural violence committed by the occupying regime, have forced many Palestinian to seek refuge and prospects for a better life in other countries. This has resulted in nearly 7 million Palestinians living abroad.[ix] This immense Palestinian diaspora is structurally denied their right to return to their ancestral homeland; the new procedure further cements this. As mentioned, Palestinians with Jordanian papers cannot apply for visas, except under “exceptional and humanitarian cases”[x] and the ones who can, are almost always denied for a number of reasons. Moreover, the new procedure does not make any provisions for long-term visas for children, parents, siblings or any relatives other than spouses.[xi] This means Palestinians who were driven from their homes or ventured abroad in search of a better life, cannot visit their family long-term or move back home.  Also, Palestinians in relationships with foreigners are prevented from being together long-term by the spousal restrictions. Furthermore, the expensive bonds provide another obstacle, meaning those who cannot afford them cannot visit family. On top of that, battling the almost inevitable denial of entry for Palestinians, is an exhausting and expensive endeavour. Appeals require a lawyer to be successful and thus require the financial means to hire one. Important to note, ‘successful’ in this sense merely means a visa(-extension), citizenship is out of the question.[xii] Lastly, the discouraging factor and psychological effects of the procedure must be taken into account. The sheer complexity and duration of the application process, the financial costs and the humiliating treatment that is to be expected upon entry, all work to discourage Palestinians abroad from even attempting to visit their homeland. The anxiety, stress and strain that separation and obstacles to unification put on Palestinians is understandably immense and detrimental to mental health and familial stability.[xiii] Evidently, Palestinian families spread over different countries are fragmented by the Israeli occupation’s control over their entry and ties between Palestinians in the oPt and the Palestinian diaspora are obstructed and severed. This further isolates the Palestinian population from the rest of the world, including from their own families.

Foreigners

Secondly, Israeli control over entry to the oPt isolates Palestinian society by discouraging and obstructing foreigners from staying long-term. One crucial effect of the procedure is the obstruction of foreign engagement in the Palestinian cause. Through targeting activists, journalists, humanitarian workers and other foreign advocates of the Palestinian plight, Israel prevents the spread of awareness and the international showcasing of Palestinian reality. By deciding who can enter the oPt and what work they can or cannot do, Israel tries to control the flow of information in and out of Palestine and obstructs foreign engagement in Palestinian civil society. Meanwhile, Israel vigorously strives to maintain and increase the flow of foreign visitors to Israeli territory. It actively attracts tourists, invites foreign professionals and diplomats on organised whitewashing trips and draws foreign Jews to Israel, sometimes even covering their expenses through Birthright.[xiv] Through this, Israel attempts to normalise its existence, construct a sense of legitimacy and stimulate international support. Thus, by isolating and suppressing the oPt and amplifying Israel internationally, it can attempt to exercise more control over what the world gets to see and push the Israeli narrative on the international and geopolitical stages. Furthermore, obstructing foreign academics provides Israel with a tool to shape Palestinian education and Palestinians’ access to information and international collaboration. With the new procedure, Israel determines whether a foreigner’s field is permissible and whether they will contribute “to the Area’s academic education or its economy.”[xv] If their field is deemed admissible, they have to periodically leave the country for a visa renewal and after 5 cumulative years, have to leave for at least 9 months to be allowed entry again.[xvi] Lastly, they also have to be lucky to be among the quota allowed that year. All this makes an endurable academic career in the oPt immensely difficult. The influx of foreign lecturers and students is crucial for any educational institute and international communication and academic freedom are cornerstones of academic learning. Through the new measures, the Israeli state exercises control over the curriculum of Palestinian students and their freedom to access information, infringing on academic freedom and the autonomy of universities.[xvii] Thus, Israel attempts to isolate Palestinian society from the rest of the world, both through preventing foreign engagement in the Palestinian cause and through restricting foreign academics.

 

Monitoring and surveillance

In addition to isolating the oPt, the entry procedure can also be seen as an effort to monitor and surveil Palestinian population, networks and land. Through the aforementioned thorough questioning about relatives and acquaintances as well as ownership and future inheritance of land, the Israeli occupation is able to gather extensive data on interpersonal Palestinian networks and property in the oPt.[xviii] This sweeping collection of data on Palestinian civilians is part of a broader effort to monitor and surveil the population of the oPt. Policies of questioning, photographing and documenting Palestinians and their movement, and advanced technology like artificial intelligence, facial recognition software and large-scale camera surveillance, all work to subject Palestinians to constant surveillance.[xix] Not only does this invasive practice allow Israel to map the interconnections of Palestinians, it also expands Israel’s control by using gathered data to blackmail Palestinians into cooperation.[xx] The interrogations could also facilitate further dispossession. The Israeli occupation continually steals Palestinian land through forcibly evicting civilians and demolishing Palestinian buildings, to claim space for illegal settlements. This raises fears that information shared about land owned by Palestinians living abroad, might lead to denial of their applications in order to pave the way for the expropriation of those lands.[xxi] Thus, the interrogations at the borders are part of the occupation’s broader policies of surveillance and possible dispossession.

 

Extending sovereignty

The entry procedure and the wider policies it is part of, serve to extend and reinforce Israeli sovereignty over the oPt, specifically the West Bank. Many components of the procedure were already practiced in reality. However, this new document makes these practices explicit and official.[xxii] Controlling the flow of people into the oPt, expands Israeli control and bolsters its proclaimed sovereignty over the area. This is further amplified by referring to the West Bank exclusively using the Israeli names (Judea and Samaria) or the ‘Area’, erasing Palestinians’ identity, sovereignty and strong connection to the land. Moreover, the procedure formalises the separation between Palestinians and Israeli settlers living in the oPt. Foreigners wishing to visit, work or study in internationally condemned illegal Israeli settlements, are exempted from the visa requirements. The segregated procedures for civilians living in the same area and the deprivation of rights of one of those groups, constitute an apartheid regime.[xxiii] Ergo, the procedure officially enforces Israel’s proclaimed sovereignty over the oPt and cements the position of Palestinians as a separated, inferior group in society.

 

Violations of universal human rights

Israel’s procedure undoubtedly isolates Palestinian society and increases its control over the oPt. In doing so, the occupier infringes upon a multitude of universal human rights, in flagrant violation of several international treaties it is party to. Firstly, its restrictions on Palestinians living abroad attempting to visit or reunify with their relatives and spouses, is an infringement of the Right to Family Life. Expanding on the right as codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), article 23 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) dictates:

 

1. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
2. The right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and to found a family shall be recognized.

 

Additionally, article 10 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) states:

 

1. The widest possible protection and assistance should be accorded to the family, which is the natural and fundamental group unit of society, particularly for its establishment and while it is responsible for the care and education of dependent children. Marriage must be entered into with the free consent of the intending spouses.

 

Israel’s obstruction of family reunification and severance of familial and spousal ties is far-removed from protecting and assisting the family as fundamental group unit and facilitating marriage and the founding of families. Hence, it is a blatant violation of the Right to Family Life.

 

Secondly, the procedure violates the Right to Freedom of Movement. Article 13 of the UDHR dictates:

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.
2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

 

Further stressing the right of return, article 12, paragraph 4 of the ICCPR states:

 

1. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.

 

Israel’s refusal of entry and denial of the right of return for the Palestinian diaspora, and the prevention of foreigners trying to enter and remain in the oPt, is thus a glaring violation of the Right to Freedom of Movement.

 

Thirdly, Israel impedes on the Right to Education. Building on article 26 of the UDHR, article 13 of the ICESCR articulates:

 

1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to education. They agree that education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity, and shall strengthen the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. They further agree that education shall enable all persons to participate effectively in a free society, promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations and all racial, ethnic or religious groups, and further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
2. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize that, with a view to achieving the full realization of this right:
3. Higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education
4. No part of this article shall be construed so as to interfere with the liberty of individuals and bodies to establish and direct educational institutions, subject always to the observance of the principles set forth in paragraph I of this article and to the requirement that the education given in such institutions shall conform to such minimum standards as may be laid down by the State.

 

The protection of institutional autonomy and academic freedom is further emphasised in the General Comment on article 13 of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.[xxiv] Through denying foreign students and lecturers, exercising control over the curriculum of students and their freedom to access information, Israel restricts access to education and impedes on academic autonomy and freedom, thus overtly violating the Right to Education.

 

Lastly, Israel’s procedure is in breach with the Right to Privacy, as set forth in article 12 of the UDHR:

 

1. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

 

Humiliating and invasive questioning of people, without clear, founded or reasonable motivation, amounts to arbitrary interference with privacy, making the procedure a brazen breach of the Right to Privacy.

 

Demands

Hurryyat calls on the international community to take an active stance in order to stop the constant violations of universal human rights committed by Israel’s occupation regime. Concretely, Hurryyat proposes the following steps:

 

1. Pressure Israel into abiding by the international agreements they are party to, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Consequently, hold Israel accountable for its continuous violations of these international agreements through sanctions and legal prosecution.

 

2. Enforce the legal principle of reciprocity regarding visa and entry requirements for Israeli citizens. Pressure Israel into amending its procedures through imposing equal requirements on Israeli citizens when they try to travel abroad.

 

3. Educate on the restrictions Israel imposes on foreign nationals and the effects of this policy. Awareness of Israel’s active attempts to isolate the Palestinian population is an important step towards understanding the Palestinian plight and subsequently working to change it.

 

4. Raise awareness of Israel’s attempts to push its narrative and conceal its oppression of Palestinians, through its organised and funded trips for tourists, diplomats, religious visitors and others. Whitewashing (as well as pink- and greenwashing) tourism works to silence Palestinian voices, erase Palestinian identity and push Israeli legitimacy on an international level.

 

5. Call on universities to pressure Israel about their restricting policies, through raising awareness of the procedures’ goals and effects, giving Palestinian voices a platform, severing ties with Israeli universities and study programs involved in whitewashing, and stimulating collaboration with Palestinian universities.

 

 

Special thanks to the volunteers of the Right to Enter Campaign. Find out more about their work on their website: https://www.righttoenter.ps/.

About Hurryyat

The Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights “Hurryyat”, through its Right to Movement and Travel Project, works to aid Palestinians who have been banned from travel, research the ways in which the Right to Movement is violated and advise international bodies on the subject. For more information on its mission and activities, as well as other important projects, please take a look at our website.

For more information:

• Applied Research Institute Jerusalem, ‘The Israeli Government’s New Restrictions of Entry for Foreigners into the West Bank- This is Apartheid’, September 2022. https://www.arij.org/latest/the-israeli-governments-new-restrictions-of-entry-for-foreigners-into-the-west-bank/.
• Campaign for the Right to Enter the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), ‘Briefing note: New COGAT “Procedure for entry and residence of foreigners in the Judea and Samaria area”’, April 2022.
• Human Rights Watch, ‘West Bank: New Entry Rules Further Isolate Palestinians’, January, 23, 2023. https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/01/23/west-bank-new-entry-rules-further-isolate-palestinians.

About the author

Rafaël Rutten is a Dutch intern working with Hurryyat on the Right to Movement and Travel Project, based in Ramallah. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in History & International Relations and is currently following a Master’s program in Conflict Studies & Human Rights, both at Utrecht University. He has a broad interest in history, international relations, violent conflict and media, with a regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa, specifically the Israel-Palestine Conflict.

 

[i] See for example: HaMoked, ‘HaMoked to the Minister of Defense: The revised procedure for the entry of foreigners to the oPt is still fundamentally flawed and must be frozen until it is amended’, September 14, 2022. https://hamoked.org/document.php?dID=Updates2327. And Birzeit University, ‘Call to Action Birzeit University Rejects Israeli Measures Against Academic Freedom’, March 12, 2022. https://www.birzeit.edu/en/news/call-action-birzeit-university-rejects-israeli-measures-against-academic-freedom.

[ii] Alice Speri, ‘Israel tightens restrictions on travel to the occupied territories’, The Intercept, May 13, 2022. https://theintercept.com/2022/05/13/israel-palestine-west-bank-travel-restrictions/.

^[iii] Amira Hass, ‘What Happens at Israel’s Border Crossings Is Calculated Humiliation’, Haaretz, August 27, 2018. https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2018-08-27/ty-article-opinion/.premium/what-happens-at-israels-border-crossings-is-calculated-humiliation/0000017f-f7e7-d460-afff-ffe70a900000?v=1684218835221.

[iv] Al Jazeera, ‘Breaking down Israel’s regulations on foreigners in the West Bank’, September 5, 2022. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/5/israels-permit-rules-restricting-palestinian-life-explainer.

[v] Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ), ‘The Israeli Government’s New Restrictions of Entry for Foreigners  into the West Bank- This is Apartheid’, September 2022, 3-4. https://www.arij.org/latest/the-israeli-governments-new-restrictions-of-entry-for-foreigners-into-the-west-bank/.

[vi] Birzeit University, ‘Call to Action’.

[vii] Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories Operations Department, ‘Procedure for Entry and Residence of Foreigners in the Judea and Samaria Area’, August 2022, 5. https://www.gov.il/en/departments/policies/judeaentry2022.

[viii] Human Rights Watch, ‘West Bank: New Entry Rules Further Isolate Palestinians’, January, 23, 2023. https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/01/23/west-bank-new-entry-rules-further-isolate-palestinians.

^[ix] Ola Awad, ‘Brief Report on the Population of Palestine at the End of 2021’, Arab Center Washington DC,  January 3, 2022. https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/brief-report-on-the-population-of-palestine-at-the-end-of-2021/.

[x] HaMoked, ‘HaMoked to the Minister of Defense’.

[xi] Campaign for the Right to Enter the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), ‘Briefing note: New COGAT “Procedure for entry and residence of foreigners in the Judea and Samaria area”’, April 2022.

[xii] Interview conducted with volunteers from the Right to Enter campaign on May 11, 2023.

[xiii] Idem.

^[xiv] For information on Israel’s whitewashing through tourism, see for example: US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, ‘Ethical Travel to Palestine & Challenging Apartheid Tourism’, https://uscpr.org/activist-resource/ethical-travel-to-palestine-challenging-apartheid-tourism/.

[xv] COGAT, ‘Procedure’, 21.

[xvi] Ibidem, 19.

[xvii] Birzeit University, ‘Call to Action’.

[xviii] Speri, ‘Israel tightens restrictions’.

^[xix] Mona Shayta, ‘Nowhere to hide: The impact of Israel’s digital surveillance regime on the Palestinians’, Middle East Institute, April 27, 2022. https://www.mei.edu/publications/nowhere-hide-impact-israels-digital-surveillance-regime-palestinians.

^[xx] See for example: Al Jazeera, ‘Israel’s Automated Occupation: Jerusalem’, May 13, 2023. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-listening-post/2023/5/13/israels-automated-occupation-jerusalem.

[xxi] Speri, ‘Israel tightens restrictions’.

[xxii] RTE interview.

[xxiii] ARIJ, ‘The Israeli Government’s New Restrictions’, 2022. 3.

[xxiv] Michael Mason, ‘The Right to Education is also Palestinian’, LSE Middle East Centre Blog, March 23, 2022. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2022/03/23/the-right-to-education-is-also-palestinian/.