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West Bank deportation challenged West Bank deportation challenged
(about 1 hour later)
Israel's Supreme Court is due to hear the case of a 21-year-old Palestinian woman whom the Israeli military deported to Gaza from the West Bank.Israel's Supreme Court is due to hear the case of a 21-year-old Palestinian woman whom the Israeli military deported to Gaza from the West Bank.
Bethlehem University student Berlanty Azzam was deported two weeks ago.Bethlehem University student Berlanty Azzam was deported two weeks ago.
The Israeli army said that she had only been given a permit, back in 2005, to spend a few days in Jerusalem. The Israeli army said she had been given a permit in 2005 allowing her to spend only a few days in Jerusalem.
Her case has been taken up by an Israeli human rights group, which argues that tens of thousands of other Palestinians face deportation to Gaza. But an Israeli human rights group says that when Ms Azzam left Gaza there was no such thing as a special permit for Palestinians to enter the West Bank.
At the end of October, Ms Azzam was stopped at a checkpoint in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers. The organisation, Gisha, believes tens of thousands of other Palestinians in the West Bank are also under threat of deportation.
When they saw that her home address was in the Gaza Strip, she was detained, and later blindfolded and handcuffed, before being deported to Gaza. 'Illegal resident'
Illegal resident claim Ms Azzam was stopped at a checkpoint in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers at the end of October, two months before she was due to complete a degree in business management in Bethlehem.
She was just two months away from completing her degree in business management at Bethlehem University. I'm dreaming of the day when I can return to my studies Berlanty Azzam
The army said that since 2005 she had been living illegally in the West Bank. When they saw that the address listed on her identity card was in Gaza, she was detained for six hours, then blindfolded and handcuffed and told she would be taken to a detention centre in the southern West Bank.
The Israeli human rights group, Gisha, is disputing that claim at the Israeli Supreme Court. "The driving took longer than it should have and I started to think something was wrong. I started to wonder, what are they doing to me?" Ms Azzam said.
Gisha argues that at the time Ms Azzam left Gaza, there was no such thing as a special permit for Palestinians to enter the West Bank. After the car stopped and the blindfold was lifted, she saw she was at the Erez crossing to Gaza. She was then forced to enter the territory without being given the chance to speak to a lawyer.
What's more, Israel does not allow people to change their addresses from Gaza to the West Bank. "The decision that a person's address listed in the Population Registry constitutes an essential condition for the legality of his/her residence at that address - with no explicit legal basis and with no official notification... undermines the fundamental principles of the law," said a lawyer for Gisha, Yadin Elam, in its petition to the Supreme Court.
The human rights group says that as many as 25,000 people in the West Bank are in a similar position to Ms Azzam, and risk being removed from their homes, their jobs and their families. Gisha warned that if Ms Azzam's deportation were permitted, an estimated 25,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank who had Gazan addresses on their identity cards risked being removed.
The human rights group also noted in its petition that Israel had made no security allegations against Ms Azzam, and that the manner in which she was detained and forcibly removed was a violation of her right to due process.
Regarding the army's claim that Ms Azzam was present in the West Bank "illegally", Gisha argued that at the time she left Gaza, a special permit for Palestinians to remain "simply did not exist".
Furthermore, it said, Israel did not allow people to change their addresses from Gaza to the West Bank, and had not issued a single entry permit for the purpose of travelling to study to Palestinians from Gaza despite an Israeli High Court ruling in 2007.
"I'm dreaming of the day when I can return to my studies. I am worried and fearful of what might happen, and I hope that my right to education will not be violated," Ms Azzam said on Wednesday.