December 25, 2022
Dozens of Gaza Christians Denied Right to Travel and Access to Places of Worship to Perform their Religious Rites
Dozens of Gaza Christians Denied Right to Travel and Access to Places of Worship to Perform their Religious Rites

Ref: 161/2022

Date: 25 December 2022

Time: 08:30 GMT

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the Israeli occupation authorities’ banning the travel of 377 Palestinian Christians from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank and access the holy places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem to join the Christmas celebrations.  PCHR emphasizes that this unjustified and arbitrary measure violates Christians’ right to freedom of movement and travel and their right to access the places of worship and practice their religion.

Mr. Kamel ‘Ayyad, Director of Public Relations at the Orthodox Church in Gaza, said to PCHR’s fieldworker that the Church applied to the Israeli authorities via the Gaza Authority of Civil Affairs to approve the travel of 1027 Christians from Gaza to the West Bank.  However, the Israeli authorities directly rejected the travel of 200 of them allegedly for security reasons and did not reply to 177 other applications claiming they were under study.  Meanwhile, they approved the travel of only 650 Christians (i.e., 36.7% Christians were denied travel.)  ‘Ayyad added that Israel has granted permits to only members of one family and denied the others, mentioning his family of 5 as an example as the Israeli authorities granted his wife and one of his daughters permits while ‘Ayyad and his 2 other daughters were not granted any.  This measure has denied dozens of families from traveling although some members of the family obtained travel permits.  The Israeli authorities annually deny the travel of dozens of Gaza Christians, who apply twice a year to travel: one in April to celebrate Easter and the other in December to celebrate Christmas.  It should be noted that the permits granted this year expire in 45 days comparing with last year’s permits that were of 3 months.

Denying Christians travel and access to places of worship to perform religious rituals constitutes a serious violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, especially Article (18) that stipulates “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice, and teaching”. Meanwhile, Article (12) of the same Covenant ensures everyone’s right to liberty of movement lawfully within the territory of his State and liberty to leave any country, including his own. Also, Depriving citizens of practicing religious rites violates Article (27) of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, protected persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honor, their family rights, their religious convictions and practices, and their manners and customs.

The Israeli occupation maintains an illegal and inhuman closure on the Gaza Strip consecutively for 16 years.  This closure has imposed restrictions that deny most of Gaza Strip population, including around 1500 Christians, from travel via Beit Hanoun “Erez” crossing, while only certain categories and limited numbers are allowed to travel via this crossing.

In light of the above, PCHR calls upon the international community to exert pressure on Israel to end its continuous violations against the Palestinian civilians, especially Gaza Christians’ right to travel and access places of worship to practice their religious rites.