Israeli judge upholds travel ban on Amnesty International staffer

It’s been more than 500 days since Amnesty International staffer Laith Abu Zeyad has left the boundaries of the occupied West Bank, due to an Israeli ban preventing him from traveling outside the country and entering Israel and occupied East Jerusalem. 

Last week, an Israeli district court renewed that ban, dashing any hopes Abu Zeyad had that his nightmare would be over any time soon. 

Judge Moshe Sobel of the Jerusalem District Court overturned a February petition filed by Amnesty International demanding that the court overturn the “cruel” travel ban imposed on Abu Zeyad, which the group claims is a “targeted attack” on Abu Zeyad for his human rights work with the organization. 

Judge Sobel decided instead to uphold the ban, accepting the position of the Israel Security Agency, or Shin Bet, that Abu Zeyad was a “security threat.” Last May, Judge Sobel handed down a similar decision, rejecting an appeal filed by Abu Zeyad’s lawyers to have the ban overturned. 

The evidence allegedly proving that Abu Zeyad is a so-called “security threat” has thus far been kept in a closed file by the Shin Bet, and was presented only to the judge in a closed meeting. 

Since Abu Zeyad’s ban was imposed in October 2019 until today, neither Abu Zeyad nor his lawyers have been privy to the secret evidence being used by the Shin Bet to enforce and uphold the ban against him. 

“It’s absurd that me and my lawyers are being forced to defend myself and argue against secret evidence that we have not even seen ourselves,” Abu Zeyad told Mondoweiss after the court hearing on April 6th. 

“The judge said the onus was on us to challenge the evidence, but we don’t even know what it is,” Abu Zeyad said.

While Abu Zeyad was denied a permit to attend his last court hearing in May 2020, this time around he was given a permit — the first he has received in almost two years — to enter Jerusalem for the day of the hearing. 

When it came time for him to say his piece, Abu Zeyad stood before the same judge who had overturned his petition one year prior, and attempted to argue his case. 

“I said that I know the security forces claim that I’m a threat, but I’m here to tell you I’m not a threat. I am just trying to do my work as a human rights defender. I have been under a travel ban for more than 500 days, and I hope the court will give me back my freedom,” Abu Zeyad recounted. 

But, at the end of the day, when the judge announced he would be accepting the Shin Bet’s position, effectively rubber stamping the ban, Abu Zeyad said he felt all his efforts were in vain. 

“It felt like it was all for nothing,” he said. 

In response to the court’s decision last week, Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General slammed the Israeli authorities, including the judiciary, for their “wanton disregard for international human rights law.”

“The travel ban on Laith Abu Zeyad is a reprisal for his work as a human rights defender. It has prevented Laith from doing critical advocacy work internationally and barred him from working at Amnesty International’s office in occupied East Jerusalem.  A decision to uphold his travel ban will have chilling repercussions not only for Laith, but for all those who undertake human rights work against Israeli violations.”

‘It’s psychological torture’

Since being stripped of his right to freedom of movement, Abu Zeyad has suffered tremendous loss — loss that has been exacerbated by his travel ban. 

In September 2019, Abu Zeyad was denied a permit to accompany his mother to Jerusalem, where she was being treated for cancer. As a result of his travel ban, he was unable to be with her when she passed away in the same Jerusalem hospital a few months later. 

During that same time period, Abu Zeyad attempted to travel to Jordan to attend a relative’s funeral. Due to the ban on his movement, he was denied the Israeli border between the West Bank and Jordan, and turned back home. 

Now, Abu Zeyad faces the possibility that he could lose out on the opportunity of a lifetime, to work at the Amnesty International office in London, once again due to his travel ban. 

“After a rigorous interview and application process, I was offered a new position at Amnesty International in London,” Abu Zeyad told Mondoweiss. “But, that job is contingent upon me being located in London, which I cannot do so long as this ban is in place.”

Abu Zeyad said that his lawyers brought the matter of his London job before the court during this hearing last week, in the hopes that it would help his case.

“My lawyers essentially asked the judge, what kind of danger could I possibly present if I’m going to be working in a different country?” Abu Zeyad said, adding that his lawyer even suggested that the authorities let Abu Zeyad travel to London on the condition that he won’t return to Palestine for one year. 

That proposal, however, was also rejected by the court. “At this point, it’s not just about freedom of movement, but about my right to work as well,” Abu Zeyad said. “My right to work and choose whatever work suits me and my future best is also being violated, and they are preventing me from pursuing this career opportunity.”

For Abu Zeyad, the possibility that he might have to give up on the job opportunity in London is  one that he doesn’t want to think about. 

“This isn’t just about a job, it’s about  my future,” Abu Zeyad told Mondoweiss. “For Palestinians it’s really hard for us to get a job outside the country. It’s not just a job opportunity, it also opens other opportunities for immigration, etc.”

“It’s psychological torture,” he said. “Having no control over my future or present. It’s been really frustrating for my mental health. No one can deal with this type of uncertainty.”

No justice in the justice system

Abu Zeyad and his lawyers plan on filing an appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court, the next step in the legal process. 

That appeal can only be filed, however, once the district court judge publishes his official decision, which the judge typically has three months to do. Once that decision is published, Abu Zeyad and his lawyers have 45 days to file their appeal to the supreme court. 

Following last year’s district court hearing, in which judge Sobel rejected Abu Zeyad’s petition, the judge took more than six months to publish his official decision, causing Abu Zeyad and his lawyers to miss the time frame afforded by the law to appeal to the supreme court.

As a result, they were forced to return back to the same district court this month and go through the same proceedings over again. Abu Zeyad believes that as part of a coordinated effort on part of Israeli authorities to prevent him from appealing to the supreme court, the judge purposefully delayed publishing his decision by several months. 

Now he’s worried that the same thing could happen again. 

“While we hope that we can appeal to the supreme court as soon as possible, it’s not guaranteed that we will be able to,” he said. “If the judge decides for some reason to take six more months to publish his decision, then we will be forced to restart the process in the district courts all over again.”

Even if he makes it to the supreme court, Abu Zeyad said he has his reservations over whether he will finally get a fair trial. 

“With the supreme court, we will get three judges instead of one, which means that there is more opportunity for discussion and more room for the judges to question the secret evidence of the Shin Bet,” Abu Zeyad said. 

“But at the end of the day, the supreme court is still part of the same justice system that was designed to work against Palestinians, and that has targeted human rights workers for decades,” he said.

 “This is political persecution, not just against me, but against the work of Amnesty and countless other Palestinian political activists.”