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Since 1990, Gaza-born Samir Abu Yusef has lived in Qalqilya in the northwestern West Bank. He's a carpenter, married with four children, yet in early 2008 was arrested entering Israel and deported because of his ID card address.
For over two years, he was separated from his family causing immense anguish and hardships, including financial ones. His application to return home was denied because he didn't observe Israel's permit criteria. His wife and children also couldn't visit him for the same reason.
Gisha petitioned Israel's High Court of Justice (HCJ) on his behalf and succeeded, reuniting him with his family in March, Samir saying months earlier:
"Two years have passed since I saw my children. I yearn to touch them, to watch them grow up, to hug them....It's very hard (being) away from them....The holiday season is the hardest time....On the holiday, I stay alone in my room and cry....What have my children done to deserve such a terrible punishment - to live without a father?"
Thousands of others in the West Bank fear the same fate - arbitrary removal, so they restrict their movements, fearing arrest at a checkpoint or by military patrols and deportated.
Gaza-born Ahmed Alul, a Tulkarm resident since 1996, visited his parents and family in Gaza in April 2001. He was then prevented from returning, his wife Samar saying how hard it is "to raise two boys by myself. I am both father and mother to them....no one can (replace their) father."
Unlike most countries and all civilized ones, Palestinians are denied free movement. As a result, Gazan men and women with West Bank spouses can't reunite to be together, yet Israel lets West Bank and East Jerusalem residents move to Gaza, but not return - an option risking livelihoods, land, homes, and family support networks, one few wish to choose.
West Bank-born Gazans face an impossible choice. They can stay with their spouse, detached from West Bank families, or return and be separated from wives or husbands who can't leave. The toll for many is unbearable, living half lives not whole ones.
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