The Effects of Israel’s Visa Restrictions in Palestine on Family, Social and Political Life

Israel controls all border entry points into the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) and thus determines the legal status of the international citizens (including hundreds of UK/EU nationals) who live and work in Palestine. Many of them work in sectors for which the current Israeli government is restricting visitor and residency visas, including: NGOs, human rights organisations, academia, journalism and development agencies. Preliminary
research has indicated that this recent tightening of visa restrictions has increased the threat of deportation and anxieties around denied (re)entry and that this affects people’s roles both at home and at work. The personal and political lives of Palestinians connected to those roles are also affected by the prospect of losing family, collaborators and colleagues. The objective of this research is thus to examine the effects of visa precarity in Palestine on family, social and political life.

Principal Investigator: Dr Mark Griffiths, Newcastle University