information to Israel in exchange for a permit, which also indicates that the granting of permits is used to serve different political goals.47 Separation of Palestinian Families and Friends Many Palestinian families have been separated by the permit regime, and Israel refuses to grant them the necessary permits to visit their family or friends in other parts of the oPt or inside Israel. It is clear that the separation of families and friends is not an unintended byproduct of measures pertaining to Israeli security concerns, but instead a political goal in itself. BADIL’s interview with Salwa Ramzi reveals how Israel deliberately uses the permit regime to separate Palestinians as a punitive tool.48 Israel exiled Salwa’s son from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip as punishment for his involvement in the Second Intifada, with Israel subsequently making it impossible for him to visit his family and friends in the West Bank. For Palestinians with relatives in the Seam Zones, it is also practically impossible to visit them in these areas.49 The deliberate destruction of the social relations of Palestinians does not improve the security of Israel, and as such this use of the permit regime demonstrably serves an Israeli agenda divorced from that of security. Conclusion These few examples out of many illustrate how the permit regime does not follow a security rationale, with the restrictive measures and policies imposed appearing to have little to do with security. The permit regime does, however, apply increased pressure and hardship on the movement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians without providing any evidence of threat posed by these individuals. Such restrictions on the rights of Palestinians are disproportionate and constitute collective punishment, as individuals, regardless of their actions, suffer from the implications of the permit regime. According to International Human Rights Law, in order to be justified, any limitations imposed upon human rights must be proportionate to the objective(s) such limitations pursue. This means there must be a balance between the restrictions imposed by Israel and the security aim of these restrictions. Any assessment of such proportionality must include exploration of less intrusive means of achieving the same aim. Severely restricting the freedom of movement of all residents of the West Bank and 47 Ibid. 48 BADIL’s interview with Salwa Ramzi, mother of a former Palestinian prisoner forced to relocate to the Gaza Strip, “Israel separates families as a punishment tool”, Bethlehem, August 2015 49 HaMoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual, “The Permit Regime: Human Rights Violations in West Bank Areas Known as the ‘Seam Zone’”, March 2013, page 19. Available at: http://www. hamoked.org/files/2013/1157660_eng.pdf 20