Israeli occupation government prevents a 7 year old from Gaza from seeing his only parent in the West Bank

Tuesday June 23, 2009 12:26 by Katherine Orwell - 1 of International Middle East Media Center Editorial Group

A young boy from Gaza that lost his mother and wants to rejoin his father in Hebron in the southern West Bank, is not allowed to do so by the Israeli authorities, Israeli media reported.

Palestinian boy from Gaza - Photo by Andreas Lunde

According to the procedures of the office of the coordinator of activities in the territories for handling requests from the Gaza Strip residents seeking to settle in the West Bank, the boy should stay in Gaza, unless there are no other relatives at all that can take care of him, not necessarily first-degree relatives.

Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai says that cases like these should not automatically be seen as humanitarian cases. Family ties, in and of itself, are not reason enough to justify a humanitarian case allowing residency in Judea and Samaria."

Israeli human rights activists say the procedures are sign of a broad policy of encouraging Palestinians to resettle in Gaza, to permanently distance them from the West Bank. Families that cannot reunite in the West Bank must move to the Gaza Strip, even if their homes, lives and family are in the West Bank.

The new procedure goes against a series of international, diplomatic commitments made by Israel, including a specific commitment in the Oslo Accords to uphold the status of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as "a single territorial unit."

The interim agreement also endorses that Palestinians are entitled to choose their place of residence in the territories.

The Gisha association and the Center for the Defense of the Individual, noted that according to the Defense Ministry rules, it is easier for a foreign citizen living in the West Bank to obtain the status of a resident of the territories than it is for a Palestinian from Gaza to move to the West Bank.

Israeli citizens are strongly encouraged by the Israeli state to settle in the West Bank. Israeli settlers receive government subsidies and tax breaks and the majority of settlers living in the West Bank do so for economic motivations.

During the recent Israeli war on Gaza 83 per cent of the people killed were civilians, 313 victims were children under the age of eighteen. The continuing Israeli siege on the Strip leaves children without the most basic necessities for their development.

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