Human Rights Groups Warn of New Powers for Israel - New York Times

JERUSALEM — A recently amended military order that allows Israel to remove people from the West Bank if it does not recognize their legal status could lead to the expulsion of thousands of Palestinians, Israeli human rights groups warned Sunday.

The amendment — to a 1969 order on dealings with those judged to be infiltrators of the West Bank — was signed by military officials last October and is due to take effect on Tuesday.

In the original document, issued two years after Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war, “infiltrator” was defined as a person who entered the area illegally from a neighboring Arab country. The amendment redefined the term to refer broadly to anyone who entered the West Bank “unlawfully” or who “does not lawfully hold a permit.” The permit required is not specified.

“The wide definitions are the problem,” said Elad Cahana, a lawyer for HaMoked: The Center for the Defense of the Individual, one of 10 groups appealing for a delay on the change in the order. The group estimated that tens of thousands of Palestinians could theoretically be at risk.

The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, denounced the change. “These military orders belong in an apartheid state,” he said. “Extensive in scope, they make it infinitely easier for Israel to imprison and expel Palestinians from the West Bank.”

But Capt. Barak Raz, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said that there had been no change in policy regarding the extradition of illegal residents from the West Bank, and that “anyone who has the right paperwork” allowing residency “has nothing to worry about.”

Mr. Cahana said the concern was less of a mass expulsion than of the military deporting those officially registered as residents of Gaza, as well as Palestinians or their spouses who moved to the West Bank from abroad.

When the military currently tries to remove such individuals from the West Bank, it often faces difficulties in arguing the cases before Israel’s Supreme Court. The amended order could help the military overcome those difficulties, Mr. Cahana said.

Under the revised order, a deportation cannot be carried out until 72 hours after legal papers have been issued, and until the person served has had a chance to appeal in a military court.

Those convicted under the order could now face up to seven years in jail.

In the past, deportation orders could be carried out the same day they were served, with no appeal, so Captain Raz, of the Israeli military, said the amendment could actually help those without legal residency.

“It makes it easier for people without the right paperwork to appeal,” he said.

A version of this article appeared in print on April 12, 2010, on page A8 of the New York edition.