Denial of Family Unification As recognized within Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,63 the family unit is the fundamental societal group, and as such is entitled to protection by States. In the context of refugees, family unification is crucial in restoring the dignity to the life of the individual and laying secure foundations for the integration, or reintegration, of displaced communities.64 To this end, human rights law acknowledges the need to strengthen the family unit, and this is reflected in specific State obligations to keep families together, as well as to reunify them if separated.65 In direct contravention of these legal obligations, from its occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank including East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has consistently and deliberately enforced an arbitrary separation of Palestinian family members. This chapter will consider Israel’s approach to family unification, exploring both the historical background to Israeli policy and the contemporary legislative landscape which affects thousands of Palestinians within both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. Family Unification in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip Israel introduced a family unification procedure immediately after the 1967 War, theoretically entitling registered Palestinians to apply for residency on behalf of first-degree relatives who had been “permanent residents” within the now occupied territory before their forcible displacement by Israel. However, applications under this procedure were subject to stringent restrictions, including the outright exclusion of all males between the ages of sixteen and sixty,66 whilst the approval of any application was dependent on “security considerations and needs of the governing administration in the 63 Torsten Heinemann and Ursula Naue, “Immigration and Family Reunification: The International Legal Framework,” Immigene, November 8, 2008, http://immigene.eu/immigration-and-familyreunification-the-international-legal-framework. 64 UNHCR, “Family Reunification in the Context of Resettlement and Integration” (UNHCR - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, June 21, 2001), http://www.unhcr.org/3b30baa04.pdf. 65 Heinemann and Naue, “Immigration and Family Reunification: The International Legal Framework.” 66 B’Tselem, Perpetual Limbo: Israel’s Freeze on Unification of Palestinian Families in the Occupied Territories, 8. 29