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The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) is a unit in the Israeli Ministry of Defense that engages in coordinating civilian issues between the Government of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces, international organizations, diplomats, and the Palestinian Authority. It is the main organ, remaining of the mostly defunct Israeli Civil Administration,[citation needed] which had governed the West Bank and the Gaza Strip between 1981 and 1994.
COGAT is responsible for implementing the Israeli government's policy in the Area C of the West Bank and vis-à-vis the Gaza Strip. In addition, COGAT constitutes the civilian authority for residential zoning and infrastructure and is responsible for addressing the needs of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The Unit constitutes a focal point of knowledge that combines human quality and advanced technology. It coordinates the activities of government departments, I.D.F and security forces vis-à-vis the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.[1]
COGAT's headquarters are in the Kirya compound in Tel Aviv. The unit headed by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Major-General Yoav Mordechai.[2]
The West Bank branch of COGAT has its headquarters in Beit El, and is headed by Brigadier-General David Menachem.
The C.A. has District Coordination Liaison Offices (DCL) in each of the major districts of the West Bank, and one for the Jerusalem periphery area. The offices are in the cities of Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm, Qalqilyah, Ramallah, Jerusalem Periphery, Bethlehem, Hebron, and Jericho.[citation needed]
The headquarters has branches for dealing with various issues. Each of these branches is headed by a Lieutenant-Colonel.
The Foreign Relations and International Organizations, responsible for coordinating activities of international organizations.
The Economics Branch in charge of coordinating economic and business issues.
The Spokespersonship and Public Relations Office, in-charge of public communication and other publications.
The Infrastructure Branch, responsible for coordinating infrastructure-related activities: water, sewage, electricity, communications, construction, and so on, including the building of the Security Barrier.
Each of the DCLs has officers representing each of the branches in the field and deal with the day-to-day business the Palestinians have (obtaining entry permits to Israel, etc.)
Ever since the Disengagement, Israeli COGAT activity with regards to the Gaza Strip is carried out by the Coordination and Liaison Administration of the Gaza Strip (headed by a Colonel). The C.L.A is located outside of the Gaza Strip adjacent to the Erez Crossing. The C.L.A is the military unit responsible to coordinate access to and from the Gaza Strip, facilitate activities of the International community and facilitate civilian and humanitarian needs and requirements of the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip with regard to Israel.
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Israeli
authorities are disavowing their obligation to respond to inquiries
by legal representatives of Gaza residents, putting lives at
risk
Palestinians in Gaza are facing even longer delays than
before in receiving responses to their permit applications, even in
patently humanitarian cases-May 25, 2022
Since
January 2022, Israel’s Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration
(CLA), the authority in charge of processing permit applications
filed by Palestinians in Gaza, has refused to answer inquiries by
human rights organizations and lawyers on behalf of Gaza residents.
In the past six months, inquiries by legal representatives of permit
applicants from Gaza receive an automated response from the CLA,
which states that all inquiries on the status of permit applications
must be referred to the Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee (PCAC), a
Palestinian Authority-run body in Gaza that channels permit
applications by Gaza residents to the Israeli authorities and relays
Israel’s decisions to applicants. This is despite the fact that the
PCAC serves solely as a channel for applications and does not
represent the permit applicants themselves. As a result, Palestinians
in Gaza are facing even longer delays than before in receiving
responses to their permit applications, even in patently humanitarian
cases, at great risk to lives and in violation of fundamental
rights.
Every year, the CLA denies thousands of permit
applications submitted by Palestinians in Gaza, or fails to respond
to them on time, rendering them denied in practice. It is often only
following legal interventions by human rights organizations and
private lawyers that residents of the Strip receive permits and can
realize their fundamental right to travel. Until January 2022,
inasmuch as the initial permit application was filed via the PCAC,
which it usually was, the Gaza CLA engaged with human rights
organizations and private lawyers and responded to inquiries on
behalf of Gaza residents, which were usually made in the case of
delays in response or denials.
In February, human rights
organizations Gisha, Al Mezan, Physicians for Human Rights –
Israel, and HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual,
submitted an urgent pre-petition
letter to Israel’s Ministry of Justice, demanding that the CLA
rescind its refusal to process applications filed by Gaza residents’
legal representatives. In the letter, the organizations emphasized
that the CLA’s refusal to respond to human rights organizations
representing Gaza residents has effectively blocked
people from accessing urgent and life-saving medical treatment
that is unavailable in Gaza, as well as other basic, humanitarian
needs. The organizations also cautioned that the CLA’s conduct
means that it is, in effect, disavowing its legal obligations, in
severe violation of Gaza residents’ rights, including the right to
due process. Following the pre-petition letter, the Israeli
authorities claimed that they would be drafting a response to the
organizations’ arguments, and that until such a response was ready,
they would engage with Gaza residents’ legal representatives in
cases requiring urgent medical treatment. Despite this assurance,
inordinate delays by the CLA have been documented
even in patently humanitarian and urgent medical cases. On March 25,
2022, 19-month-old Fatma Jalal
al-Masri died in Gaza after Israel prevented her access to a
hospital outside the Strip, where she was due to receive treatment
for a ventricular septal defect.
The Israeli authorities
only responded to the
organizations in mid-April, stating that it would engage legal
representatives of Gaza residents only in a small and limited number
of cases, including patients in urgent need of life-saving treatment,
but not in all cases. This position stands in violation of the CLA’s
legal obligation, as an administrative authority, to process all
applications it receives and respond to them. As of today, the CLA
continues to ignore multiple inquiries filed by organizations and
lawyers on behalf of Gaza residents, referring them to the PCAC using
the automated response, even in cases that fall clearly within the
CLA’s own definition of urgent medical and humanitarian cases on
which it agrees to engage.
Israel routinely violates the
fundamental rights of Palestinians in Gaza, half of whom are
children, in direct contravention of its obligation, as an occupying
power, to protect them. The CLA’s recent change of policy prevents
organizations and lawyers from assisting Gaza residents, leaving them
more exposed than ever to the bureaucratic violence inherent in
Israel’s permit regime. Combined with its inordinate delays in
responding to permit applications, the CLA’s refusal to engage with
legal representatives of Gaza residents greatly exacerbates the harm
to Gaza residents and puts lives at risk. It must be reversed
immediately. HERE
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