The Administrative Court once again criticizes the Interior Ministry for not formulating and publishing clear guidelines for family unification applications: In its petition, HaMoked raised claims against the Respondent's policy which makes the approval of family unification applications filed by some members of a family conditional upon the approval of all of its members' applications, and also aginst the Ministry's refusal to guarentee the speedy entry into Israel of residents' children, of whom it had demanded Jordanian passports

On 18 February 2007, the Court ruled on HaMoked's petition for granting status to the wife and children of a resident of East Jerusalem who have been living in the country for over ten years. The Respondent stipulated that arrangement of the children's status would be undertaken once the children presented Jordanian passports. In order to obtain the passports, the children would have to leave their family, travel to Jordan and wait there until they receive a new visa to enter Israel. Note – approval of the application to reenter Israel may take weeks and even months. 

On 9 November 2006, HaMoked petitioned the Administrative Court demanding a creative bureaucratic solution be found for the problem, so that the Petitioner's applications are processed without them having to separate from their family for an unknown period of time. Additionally, HaMoked demanded that the Respondent be ordered to desist from its policy which makes approval of family unification applications submitted by some members of a family conditional on the approval of all the applications submitted by members of that family. HaMoked claims that this policy is unreasonable, causes unnecessary harm to the family unit and goes against the children's best interests. In the response, the Respondent claimed that it was not ordinarily its policy to tie between applications made by different members of the same family. A completely different policy was revealed in an Interior Ministry document HaMoked received in a different petition just five days later. According to the document –a draft of a procedure formulated by the Ministry: "as a rule, if applications for family unification for the father or the mother and the children are included in the same application, it is processed as a whole". 

In its decision, the Court ruled that the minor Petitioners' application for a visa to enter Israel would be reviewed within a few days of their departure to Jordan. Regarding the Respondent's policy of processing applications made by different members of the same family together, the Court ruled that the "Respondent's processing rules should be formulated in clear procedures which would be published and brought to the attention of the general public and particularly the affected population". 

Additionally, the Court noted that the Interior Ministry began reviewing the Petitioners' application more than six months after it was submitted and that this was an unreasonable length of time, since no security or criminal screenings were necessary due to the children's particularly young age. On this matter also the Court ruled that it was time for the Interior Ministry to formulate clear and organized procedures including processing times regarding applications for status for children. 

Considering all of the above, the Court ordered the Respondent to pay legal fees at NIS 3,000. 

To view the judgment dated 18 February 2007 (Hebrew) 

To view the petition dated 8 November 2006 (Hebrew)