Israel tells Turkish woman to deposit $7,700 to stay in Hebron for a month

Woman is married to Hebron man; Israel says refundable deposit is meant to guarantee she won’t move to West Bank.

HAARETZ

Israel has demanded that a Turkish woman married to a Palestinian resident of Hebron pay a refundable deposit of 30,000 shekels ($7,635) in exchange for entering the country for a month. The reason: The authorities fear the woman will move to the West Bank.

Y.A., a merchant from Hebron, married O.A. early this year. By order of the Israeli Embassy in Turkey, he contacted the District Coordination and Liaison Administration in the Hebron region to obtain an entry permit for his wife. His applications were not granted, and he said he was told that such permits were issued only in rare cases and under special circumstances.

Attorney Lea Tsemel contacted the ombudsman at the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) at the Defense Ministry, which is responsible for granting entry permits to people entering the West Bank from the Allenby border crossing.

Only after Tsemel contacted them were the authorities ready to issue a visa – but for only one month, upon payment of a deposit of 30,000 shekels that is due to be returned to her when she leaves.

“The need to deposit a guarantee as a condition of entry, together with the limitation on the length of time during which the permit is valid, was determined after a detailed examination of the facts of the case, and it was found that they provide grounds for fear that she might establish residence in the area,” Capt. Amitai Cohen from the COGAT office wrote to Tsemel.

Cohen added that requests for family reunification are made through the Palestinian Authority, and then Israel examines them. But Cohen said in his letter that today, Israel approves family reunification for Palestinians (for example, permitting a wife to live with her husband in the West Bank) “in extraordinary humanitarian circumstances only.”

In reply to a question from Haaretz as to whether these restrictions amounted to a de facto prohibition barring Palestinians from marrying citizens from abroad, a COGAT spokeswoman said there was no such prohibition.

“Each application for entry into the territories of Judea and Samaria is examined thoroughly by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories,” the spokeswoman said. “There is no prohibition against marriage between Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria and foreign citizens.

“The applicant submitted a request for an entrance visa for a visit, and because of a fear that his wife would establish residence in the territories of Judea and Samaria, in violation of the conditions of the visiting permit, a decision was made to ask for the payment of a guarantee.

“It should be emphasized that when the applicant leaves the area in time and under the conditions of the permit, the guarantee money will be returned to her.”

Tsemel said Turkish citizens should not have to pay for the privilege of entering Israel or the West Bank.

“There is no reason on earth why a Turkish citizen should pay money to enter Israel or the territories,” she said. “Thousands of Israelis enter Turkey each and every day without depositing money when they go in.”

She added that a few years ago, she agreed to the condition of depositing 30,000 shekels in exchange for the entry of an American citizen she represented, who had been suspected of criminal activity in the past and been refused entry twice because of it.

Still, unlike the Turkish woman married to the merchant from Hebron, the American received a permit to stay in the country for three months.