St. Yves Annuls Travel Ban on a Prisoner’s Wife and the High Court gives the Civil Administration a 7 Day Deadline to Set Clear Travel Procedures for Palestinians

• Date: 2016-07-14

The Society of St. Yves –Catholic Center for Human Rights annulled the travel ban on S. H., a Jordanian citizen and carries a Palestinian ID. Her husband is a political prisoner under “administrative detention”, imprisoned without either indictment or trial. The Israeli court extended his administrative detention for the 5th consecutive time this Tuesday the 12th of July 2016 for 4 additional months.

S.H used to travel regularly to Jordan to visit her family. In October 2014, she was restricted from travelling from Allenby Bridge which kept her away from her family for the past two years. She then submitted a petition through an Israeli human rights organization, which was rejected by the Israeli army. She also tried crossing the bridge several times but was denied entry each time.

Following these attempts, she approached St. Yves for their legal consultation and intervention in order to be able to attend her brother’s wedding in Jordan. St. Yves immediately applied for a request to annul the travel ban and to object the army’s decision. After a  negative response,  St. Yves filed a petition to the Israeli High court of Justice, and the court responded by appointing an urgent session. One day prior to the session, the army decided to annul the travel ban which enabled her to travel to Jordan. In addition, the court expressed its discontent of the army’s decision as it only overloaded the court and demanded the head of the civil administration to set detailed procedures regarding travel ban on Palestinians in order to avoid the repetition of such cases.