Adalah Files Pre-Petition Demanding Right of Entry to Israel for IRCT and other Human Rights Defenders
On 19 April 2002, Adalah Staff Attorney Jamil Dakwar submitted a pre-petition to the Attorney General demanding that he immediately order the Ministry of Interior to permit the entrance into Israel of a five-person expert mission from the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT).
Early on the morning of 19 April 2002, the IRCT mission team arrived at Ben Gurion International Airport from Copenhagen, Denmark. Upon being questioned by security personnel, the IRCT representatives explained that the purpose of their urgent mission was to provide critically-needed support to the organization's partners in Gaza and Ramallah. IRCT's partners include LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment, the Palestinian Council for Mental Health, B'Tselem, The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, and Physicians for Human Rights - Israel.
The IRCT representatives were immediately informed that they would not be allowed to enter Israel, on the grounds that "there is an ongoing war" in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) and that organizations such as theirs are not welcome. The team members were subsequently subjected to intensive personal searches and the confiscation of some of their electronic equipment, including computers containing confidential information. They were forced, within two hours of their arrival, to return to Denmark without their luggage or confiscated equipment.
Adalah argued in the pre-petition that such a refusal to allow the entrance of a human rights organization to Israel is an arbitrary action without legal basis, as the refusal was not based on specific information that would justify it. Further, Adalah argued that even if representatives of human rights organizations intend to enter the OPTs, there is no authority to prevent their entrance in such a sweeping manner, without basis in law, especially when the organizations in question are respected international human rights defenders. Adalah stressed that denying the entrance of human rights defenders to Israel and the OPTs is a further restriction and violation of human rights and of internationally accepted norms that call on states to allow access and freedom of movement of human rights organizations. This has additional importance given that areas of the OPTs are suffering from a severe humanitarian crisis. Adalah stated that refusing to allow human rights defenders to enter the country is contrary to the state's obligations under the United Nations Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, General Assembly Resolution 53/144.
Based on these arguments, Adalah demanded that the IRCT expert mission be allowed to enter Israel immediately, and that that their belongings be returned to them. Adalah further demanded to know whether there is any policy, written or otherwise, to prevent human rights activists from entering Israel, and the legal authority for such a policy if it exists. Adalah noted that this is not the first time that security officers and representatives of the Ministry of Interior have refused to allow representatives of human rights organizations to enter the country. (See Adalah News Update, "Israeli Ministry of the Interior Attempts to Deport French Human Rights Defenders," 7 April 2002).
On the afternoon of 19 April 2002, a representative of the Attorney General's office informed Adalah that the Ministry of Interior had no intention of canceling its decision in this case, based on a policy implemented within the last few weeks, and because of the security situation in the country.
Adalah will wait for an official, written response from the Attorney General's office before further challenging the Ministry of Interior's policy.
