Israeli Jewish Women Living in Gaza Denied Right to See their Families in Israel

You’ve  probably heard the racist outpourings of Israel’s defenders.  In turning themselves into the oppressed, the Palestinians become the new Nazis.  Prime amongst these are the ‘anti-Semitic’ Hamas that the Israeli state and shin bet helped set up.

The following article by Ha'aretz journalist, Amira Hass, who has herself lived in Gaza, demonstrates both the racism of the Israeli state to those who forsake the chosen people/race and the lie that suggests that the objection of Palestinians to Jewish settlers is because of their religion rather than their acts of settlement
Three of the women, the sisters, are still halachically Jewish, i.e. they are the children of a Jewish mother and haven't become an apostate - converted to another religion.  The fourth woman has converted to Islam and wouldn't be considered Jewish, but the Israeli Law of Return would still recognise her nationality as Jewish.


So what is their crime?  It is to have lived with and in some cases married Palestinians, the mortal enemy, Amalek.  If they had been white, neo-Nazi Russians, with Jewish ancestry, then they could have come to Israel with no problem.


What was that about Zionism not being a form of racism?

Tony Greenstein

Four Israeli citizens living in Gaza challenge ban on visiting family

One converted to Islam and married Palestinian, three sisters moved to Gaza with Palestinian father after Israeli mother died.

Umm Bilal has not been able to visit her imprisoned son for eight years.
(Eva Bartlett / IPS)

By Amira Hass    | Feb.07, 2013 | 3:21 AM
       
A boy stands outside a UN-run school in Gaza City, Nov. 21, 2012. Photo by Reuters
Four Israeli citizens are being denied the right to visit Israel, see their families and update their documents at the Interior Ministry - just because they happen to live in the Gaza Strip, according to their lawyer.

This would never happen if, for instance, the women lived in the United States, charged Nomi Heger of Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, who is representing them. In that case, a way would be found to enable the visit even if they lacked the necessary Israeli documents, she said.

Gisha's efforts to solve the problem with the Interior Ministry, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and the army's Coordination and Communication Office for Gaza all came to nothing, even though these agencies do not deny that the women are citizens. It therefore took their cases to court.

The first petitioner, who filed suit in the Be'er Sheva District Court, is a Mrs. Wahidi. She was born in Rehovot in 1965, converted to Islam with her mother in the 1980s, married a resident of Gaza and has lived with him there for years.

After her eldest son was born, the Israeli Civil Administration ordered her to turn in her Israeli identity card and replace it with Gaza residency papers, so that she could register the boy's birth and obtain health care services. At that time, Israel still controlled the Strip directly.

Her mother, 77, still lives in Israel, and Wahidi hasn't visited her since 1999. Only in 2011 did Wahidi learn that as an Israeli citizen, she is entitled to enter the country. Since then, she has been trying unsuccessfully to obtain the necessary permit from the Coordination and Communication Office.

The other three petitioners, who filed suit in the Jerusalem District Court, are three sisters born in Nahariya between 1979 and 1984 to an Israeli mother and a Palestinian father. Their mother died when they were young, after which they moved with their father to Gaza. But they have two sisters who live in Israel.

Catch-22

Until 2005, the Dabas sisters visited Israel regularly. After the 2005 disengagement from Gaza, however, entry restrictions were tightened, and they were unable to visit for the next six years. In 2011, they obtained a one-time entry permit (as Gaza residents ) to attend their sister's wedding, unaware that as citizens, they had a right to enter. Since August 2012, they have been unsuccessfully trying to get another entry permit.

In an emailed letter to Gisha, attorney Irit Weisblum of the Interior Ministry wrote that the sisters "are Israeli citizens, but don't have Israeli documentation that would enable their unambiguous identification when they arrive at the border to enter Israel." In other words, because they are citizens, they can't get entry permits as Gaza residents, but because they are Gaza residents, the authorities won't make it possible for them to enter as citizens.

When Wahidi applied for her permit, she was told that she had to first come to the Erez checkpoint between Israel and Gaza for an interrogation by the Shin Bet security service. She refused. Gisha claims this condition is illegal.

Later, she was told by the Coordination and Communication Office that she would be allowed to enter on her Israeli identity card - which she no longer has. In other words, the system knows she is Israeli, but is ignoring the fact that her ID card was deposited with the Civil Administration (the former name of the Coordination and Communication Office ) about 10 years ago.

The Be'er Sheva court will hear Wahidi's case in late February, while the Jerusalem court will hear the Dabas sisters' case in early March.