Deportation of family members of Palestinian security suspects to Gaza is illegal

On 9 March 2016, Adalah sent an urgent letter to the Minister of Defense, Moshe Ya'alon, and the Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, demanding that they oppose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s initiative, as reported in the Israeli media, to forcibly transfer relatives of Palestinians who carried out or who are suspected of committing security offenses from the West Bank to Gaza.

Adalah Attorney Nadeem Shehadeh highlighted in the letter that the Prime Minister stated that the purpose of the deportation is deterrence. In this context, Attorney Shehadeh argued that, "it is using family members as a means of exerting pressure to achieve certain political goals, and obviously such methods violate the very essence of human dignity. The Israeli Supreme Court has never approved the expulsion of a person from his home unless he personally was involved in harming the security of the state and that he poses a future threat. To the best of our knowledge, if the Attorney General approves this policy, it would be the first time that a person would be deported because of his status as a family member and not for imposing a near certain threat to the state’s security.”

Adalah argued that the Israeli Supreme Court ruled explicitly on this matter in the Ajuri case against the Israeli military commander in the West Bank. The court's decision stated that, "It is not allowed to assign the place of residence of an innocent person who does not present a threat merely on the ground that his assigned residence will deter others."

Further, Adalah argued that this policy is prohibited both under the Hague Regulations of 1907 and the Geneva Convention IV of 1949. Under international law, the occupying power is forbidden from forcibly transferring protected persons. Attorney Shehadeh contended that, "This prohibition is absolute, and applies regardless of the motive behind a forced transfer. A violation of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention IV, which applies in this case, constitutes a grave breach according to Article 147, which may be prosecuted as an international criminal law offense.”

In view of the above, Adalah demanded that the Defense Minister and the Attorney General oppose the Prime Minister’s initiative to deport relatives of Palestinians who carried out or who are suspected of committing security offenses.

Read the letter (Hebrew)