RAMALLAH, April 11 (JMCC) - A spokesperson for the Palestinian president's office said Sunday that new military regulations expected to come into force this week could annul signed agreements with
Israel.
This is unacceptable, said spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh. This amounts to a veto and the erasure of all agreements signed, giving Israel the right to expel Palestinians from their land. It is the right of all Palestinians to live in the
West Bank or
Gaza Strip and Israel has no right to interfere.
The
new military orders go into effect April 13 and will allow the Israeli military to deport any individual found in the West Bank without a permit, say human rights groups.
The regulations against infiltrators is likely to be leveraged first against Palestinians whose ID cards bear home addresses in the Gaza Strip -- people born in Gaza and their West Bank-born children -- or those born in the West Bank or abroad who for various reasons lost their residency status. Also likely to be targeted are foreign-born spouses of Palestinians,
reported the Israeli newspaper
Haaretz on Sunday.
Human rights group Hamoked
has written to the Israeli military commander requesting that the regulations be delayed.
According to their wording, writes Hamoked, every living person in the West Bank would become a criminal who faces a penalty of three to seven years imprisonment. Additionally, according to the orders, the West Bank could be emptied of all its inhabitants in a fast track three-day procedure, which, prima facie, does not require any judicial review.
Palestinian legislative council member Khalida Jarrar said that Palestinian officials were in contact with international parties to try to have the regulations rescinded.
These military orders run counter to
international law and international humanitarian law, said Jarrar. These were means used in the seventies and eighties to stop Palestinian militants and all Palestinian movements against the occupation.
Israeli military officials responded to
Haaretz inquiries on the subject:
...The amendments to the order on preventing infiltration, signed by GOC Central Command, were issued as part of a series of manifests, orders and appointments in Judea and Samaria, in Hebrew and Arabic as required, and will be posted in the offices of the Civil Administration and military courts' defense attorneys in Judea and Samaria. The IDF is ready to implement the order, which is not intended to apply to Israelis, but to illegal sojourners in Judea and Samaria.
Palestinians already require permits to access certain areas adjoining the
Wall that runs through the West Bank and parts of the Jordan Valley.