The office of the 'Legal Adviser of the Israeli Army' issued on June 6, 2007, an order for new instructional procedures for the Palestinians of all sectors (doctors, traders, workers, etc) to use in order to receive permits from the Israeli civil administration to enter Israel.
The new Israeli order signed by an Israeli officer in the 'Israeli Department of the Population Registration' on the behalf of the 'Israeli Legal Adviser of the Israeli Army' comes with much controversy as it instruct Palestinian residents of the occupied territory to file their applications to receive permits to enter Israel, through the Israeli Civil Administration and its related departments not through the Palestinian-Israeli District Coordination Office (DCO) offices.
This new development adopted by the Israeli Army is an initial step toward ending the functions of the 'Joint Israeli- Palestinian Liaison Committee' emanated by Oslo Agreement, which was signed between Israel and the PLO in September 1993 and provides that: “The committee established in order to deal with issues requiring coordination, other issues of common interest and disputes” (which afterward represented by the Joint District Coordination Offices (DCO).
According to the Israeli decision, all those Palestinians interested to receive a permit to enter Israel (doctors, traders, teachers, workers, etc) or work with International and/ or Humanitarian organizations, have to fill the required forms at the Israeli Civil Administration and file it to the related department. For example, the doctors file permit forms to the 'Health Department” and the traders to the DCO offices and the teachers to the “Education department,' and the workers of the international organizations to the 'International Organizations Department,' and so on.
The same case and procedures apply to Palestinians want to receive permanent permit to enter Israel but prevented by the Israeli authorities for security reasons. In such cases they must file a petition to the Israeli Civil Administration, which is contradictory as the Israeli Legal and Military Adviser of the Israeli Army is the only side, which is according to the Israeli regulations responsible to deal with such petitions from the Palestinians.
Conclusion
The Israeli Civil Administration, constituting in effect the actual authority in the Opt adopt new set of laws to override some clauses of the agreements signed between Israel and the PLO with regard to movement and access. The Israeli decision to broaden its authority and tighten its control permits of access to Palestinians to inter Israel came to impose more facts on the ground and to prove that Israel is not anywhere concerned to facilitate Palestinians’ life not only with regard to accessing Israel through the checkpoints where they are required permits but even within the occupied territory where they (the Israeli Army) is still in control over most of the West Bank territory and where they has some 576 different kinds of obstructions (checkpoints, earth mounds, cement block, etc) that control people’s movement toward each others.
According to Oslo Agreement of 1993 Article X: Joint Israeli-Palestinian liaison committee: 'In order to provide for a smooth implementation of this Declaration of Principles and any subsequent agreements pertaining to the interim period, upon the entry into force of this Declaration of Principles, a Joint Israeli-Palestinian Liaison Committee will be established in order to deal with issues requiring coordination, other issues of common interest and disputes”.
Prepared by
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
ARIJ
