Ref: 33/2013
Date: 24 March 2013
Time: 12:30 GMT

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the Ministry of Interior’s decision to prevent Amal Hamad, a member of the Central Committee of the Fatah movement, from travelling to the West Bank via Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing in the northern Gaza Strip. PCHR calls upon the Attorney General to intervene to put an end to these restrictive measures, and to ensure respect for the right freedom of movement, as guaranteed under the Palestinian Basic Law and relevant international human rights standards.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 10:00 on Friday, 22 March 2013, members of Internal Security Services (ISS) stationed at Costums Checkpoint ‘44’, to the south of Beit Hanoun crossing, informed Amal Ahmed Abdel-Hadi Hamad (53) of the decision to prevent her from travelling through the crossing. Ms Hamad was due to meet with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. In her testimony to a PCHR fieldworker, Ms Hamad stated that she had gone to the crossing at approximately 08:30 on Friday morning along with Dr Zakaria al-Agha, Dr Faisal Abu-Shahla and Mr Hisham Abdel-Razek. All four were stopped at the Costums Checkpoint, which operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior in the Gaza Strip. Al-Agha, Abu-Shahla and Abdel-Razeq were later allowed to travel through the crossing and travel to Ramallah. Ms Hamad was held until approximately 10:00, at which time a member of the security services informed her that she was banned from travelling due to “political considerations”.

It should be noted that this is the second time within a month Ms Hamad has been prevented from travelling to Ramallah via Beit Hanoun crossing by ISS. She was also prevented from travelling through the crossing on 24 February 2013, while she was on her way to Ramallah to attend a meeting of the Fatah Central Committee.

PCHR strongly condemns these illegal restrictions on freedom of movement, and:

1. Calls upon the Attorney General to put an end to these measures and to respect the right to freedom of movement, as guaranteed under the Palestinian Basic Law and relevant international human rights standards;
2. Stresses that any decision to prevent persons from travelling and restrict their freedom of movement must be taken upon a judicial ruling according to Article 11/2 of the Basic Law;
3. Considers these procedures to constitute unacceptable, restrictions on the freedom of movement of individuals, additional to the restrictions already imposed on the people of the Gaza Strip by Israel; and
4. Calls upon the government and security services in Gaza to respect international human rights standards, the Palestinian Basic Law and other relevant laws.