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West Bank, Palestinian Territory David E. Miller – Gazans living in the West Bank live in perpetual fear of being arrested and deported back to the isolated, Hamas-ruled enclave. Now, a new ruling by the Palestinian Supreme Court may change all that.

The court instructed the Palestinian Authority to accept applications from any of the estimated 35,000 Palestinian Gazans now residing in the West Bank who file for a change of residence. Many have been living in the West Bank for years, but neither the PA nor Israel has allowed them to establish local residency, leaving them vulnerable to deportation.

“The (PA’s) Civil Affairs administration must accept applications and take all procedures under its jurisdiction according to the transfer of authorities agreement signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel,” the decision read.

With hundreds of Israeli checkpoints across the West Bank, even the shortest journey from home is fraught with risk for Gazans living in the West Bank. While the West Bank’s economy has been thriving, Gaza is cut off from the rest of the world by an Israeli blockade and high unemployment.

The court decision was delivered following a petition by Palestinian businessman Eehab Al-Ashqar after the PA’s Civil Affairs department denied his request to change his registered address from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank.

Even under the latest ruling, Gazans in the West Bank remain in a legal limbo. The PA has until now resisted changing residency papers for Gaza West Bankers and Israel has refused to acknowledge changes of residency.

Israeli government officials claim that fewer than 100 Palestinians have been deported from the West Bank to Gaza during 2008 and 2009, but human rights organizations say the figure is much higher.

Sari Bashi, executive director of Gisha, an Israeli NGO specializing in Palestinians’ freedom of movement, said that the new court decision would have little impact on the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank.

“The Palestinian Authority can decide to print any document it wants,” she told The Media Line. “But the question of whether a person will be allowed to travel and avoid removal is solely in the hands of the Israelis. A document is just a piece of paper. What is real are military jeeps.”

Since 2000, Israel has refused to record address changes from Gaza to the West Bank submitted by the PA, Bashi said.

She added that the PA has refrained from printing IDs that would conflict with Israeli records, due to the risk of arrest facing Palestinians who present such an ID to Israeli soldiers at checkpoints.

“We had a client who arrived at an Israeli checkpoint with a newly printed ID, and was told by the soldier that her document was false and she had no right to be there,” Bashi said.

Attorney Ido Blum of the Israeli NGO Hamoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, said that last May his organization petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice along with 15 other Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations, demanding that Israel update its Palestinian population registry in accordance with the Palestinian one.

Blum said that the Israeli High Court is set to discuss the matter next April.

“The Israeli practice is utterly illegal,” he told The Media Line. “According to the Oslo accords, Israel has no authority with regards to registration of Palestinian addresses. The only obligation it has is to update its copy of the Palestinian registry after being notified by the Palestinians.”

“Population registries are supposed to reflect the reality,” Blum said. “Here, the reverse has happened: rather than reflecting the person’s address, the Israeli registry is determining it.”

“It is of course important that the Palestinian population registry reflect reality, but the core issue is the Israeli policy,” Blum added.

However, some Palestinian human rights advocates were more optimistic about the new Palestinian court decision. Khalil Abu-Shammala, director of the Gaza-based A-Dameer Association for Human Rights, said it was meaningful both on the symbolic and on the practical level.

“The decision is a victory for the Palestinian citizen and for their rights under Palestinian and international law,” he told The Media Line. “The Palestinian side should not support the occupation, which has imposed house arrest on Palestinian civilians.”

“According to the Oslo Accords, Gaza and the West Bank are considered one territorial unit, and Israel has no right to determine a person’s address,” he said.

“This decision will certainly give Palestinians power to oppose Israel,” he added.

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