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Illegal Israeli deportations

Saturday, 26 March 2016 6:12 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 26 March 2016 6:10 AM ]

A Palestinian flag flies on top of the rubble from a Palestinian household. (Photo by AFP)

Ostensibly, the reason for issuing a deportation order is to prevent a danger caused by the deportee. In practice, however, deportation has more than once served as an alternative to punishment by law, and has been exercised in large part based on political considerations rather than for security reasons related to the individual being deported.

Israel deported Palestinians in total disregard of law and due process. Although Israel has not deported any Palestinians from the occupied territories since 1992, the regulation pursuant to which the earlier deportations were carried out remains on the statute books, so Israel can carry out deportations whenever it likes.

In addition, since 2002, Israel has used a new “deterrent” ploy against the families of persons suspected of violence against Israel: deportation from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip. As in the case of deportation to a place outside of the occupied territories, forcing Palestinians to leave the West Bank and go to the Gaza Strip is an administrative rather than court-imposed punishment. To date, Israel has deported 32 Palestinians this way.

The deportation of residents in occupied territory from their homes, whether to another place in the occupied territory or to a place outside the territory, is prohibited by international humanitarian law. There is, however, one narrow exception.

International humanitarian law provides that an occupying state may evacuate residents from their homes for “imperative military reasons,” or for the security of the local population. In such cases, the evacuation must be temporary, and during that time, the occupying power must ensure the basic needs of the evacuees.

Israel’s deportation policy before 1992, and even in its present form, fails to conform to either of these exceptions and therefore flagrantly breaches international humanitarian law.

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