Life of limbo for Palestinians denied IDs by

Israel

Artist Dima Shashaas career has been severely curtailed because she cant get a Palestinian ID.
Ashraf AmraAPA images

Isra Saleh el-Namey-23 November 2015

The Electronic Intifada
Reem Hajjaj finds it almost impossible to take an elective medical course outside the
Gaza Strip. Unlike her fellow students in the Islamic University of Gazas medical
school, she does not have a Palestinian Authorityidentity card.
Hajjaj says that this situation has thwarted a lot of her plans.

The fifth-year Palestinian medical student came from Saudi Arabia to Gaza with her
family in 2006. Their visitors permits expired before they were able to depart. As a
result, the family have been stranded in Gaza, unable to leave without the required
documents.
Medical faculty in the Islamic University coordinate with their peers in other countries,
including the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Jordan, in order to let students take twomonth elective courses abroad.
Yet this remains a distant dream for Hajjaj.
All of this because of a piece of paper, she said.
The fact that Hajjajs parents cannot travel to visit Palestines holy places Israel bans
Palestinian movement even between the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip deeply
upsets the couple.
We are deprived of our right to free movement. We are stuck here almost with a life
sentence, Hajjajs father, Adel, said.
Diaa Muhammad was born in Gaza but lived in Kuwait for 30 years, where she was
also married. Neither she nor any of her four sons have an identity card.
The 67-year-old faces a lot of trouble when she needs medical services from
government facilities.
I have to use my sisters identity card to be able to have access to the medical care
sector, Muhammad said. Things will definitely go wrong when my sister needs to
visit any of these medical clinics.
Muhammad needs to go abroad for specialized treatment on her right eye that is not
available in Gaza. But she lacks an ID or passport that would enable her to cross the
borders.
They recommended that I have the operation in Jordan, but that will be impossible.
We cant go anywhere, she said.

Israels responsibility
According to Nasser Sarraj, the deputy of the civil affairs ministry in Gaza, Hajjaj and
Muhammad are only two cases from among the 40,000 to 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza
who do not have ID cards or any official status recognized by Israel, which controls the
population registry.
This situation is a product of Israeli policy, and it is Israels responsibility to change
it, he said.
Although the Palestinian Authority issues identity cards, its Israel that ultimately
determines who gets approved or not.
The problem stems back to the 1967 War, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians
temporarily fled the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Israel then withdrew their names
from the Palestinian civil registry, stripping them of their right to reside in those
territories newly occupied by its military.
Under the Oslo accords signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in
the mid-1990s, Israel supposedly transferred responsibility for civil and social affairs
to the newly created Palestinian Authority but only on the condition that it wielded
veto power over all decisions made by the PA.
After the eruption of the second Palestinian intifada in September 2000, Israel refused
to recognize any changes to the civil register made by the Palestinian Authority.
The Israeli side was no longer responding to any of the reunification applications
made by Palestinian expatriates or to issue them ID cards, Sarraj said.
A Palestinian without an identity card is permitted to apply for family reunification if
one of his or her parents holds an identity card. But that mechanism has been frozen
by Israel for years.
The civil affairs ministrys Sarraj said that his office received more than 5,000 requests
for ID cards, yet none have been issued.

Unbearable
Not having an ID has stalled the career of artist Dima Shashaa.
I was forced to decline work opportunities in the Gulf states since I do not have a
passport or ID card that can enable me to travel, she said.
Shashaas family came to Gaza in 1994 and have been stuck there ever since.
She cannot receive money transfers from her international customers who have
purchased her work online.
The Shashaa familys application for reunification was frozen along with those of
countless other Palestinians.
Shashaa said that it has been a long time since the family has inquired about the status
of their file.
Over time, weve all but lost hope of ever receiving ID cards, she said.
Isra Saleh el-Namey is a journalist from Gaza.
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