In July 2006, HaMoked filed an
administrative petition to upgrade the status of the two girls, the eldest daughters of an Israeli resident from Jerusalem, a mother of six. The petitioner had already applied to the Ministry of Interior in October 2003 - two years after the family had relocated from Nablus to Jerusalem - requesting legal status for her family. The four youngest children were consequently entered in the Israeli population registry. In November 2005, following the Amendment to the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order), the petitioner once more applied for legal status for her two eldest daughters, who were still without status. In the absence of a response, HaMoked petitioned the court.
The petition argued, inter alia, that the younger of the two was entitled to residency under the Temporary Order, as she had been under 14 when the application had been filed and that the eldest daughter should be granted the same status as her mother and five siblings, so she could continue to live with her family.
The petition was filed prior to the Ministry of Interior's publication of the current child registration procedure, which outlines its policy on the
registration of children with only one resident parent. Until that time, the ministry operated under concealed guidelines. This procedure came to light in the course of the years of proceedings on this petition, and was argued against by HaMoked. HaMoked claimed that the procedure did not provide for cases where the handling of the application exceeded the allotted timeframe, and that in such cases, the minor should be granted residency pending a decision in his case. In addition, HaMoked demanded to set a maximum period of three months for handling child registration applications. HaMoked further argued that the stipulation which binds a child registration application to the application of another family member was unreasonable. According to the procedure, if the application of the other family member is rejected, the parents must apply to the Ministry of Interior to request to continue handling the child's application. If the parents fail to do so, the application process terminates. HaMoked demanded the cessation of this practice, as it only delayed the registration process further.
On May 23, 2011,
judgment was rendered. The court instructed the procedure be amended in two respects: the granting of interim status due to protracted handling, and the termination of an application following a rejection of a relative’s application. The justice also ruled that the family must be notified, both orally and in writing, and in Arabic if necessary, when the time comes for the temporary status to be upgraded to permanent status. Furthermore the court accepted the timeframe suggested by the Ministry of Interior for the handling of requests, and set it at six months. As to the petitioner’s daughters, the court ordered to grant temporary residency to the younger, but rejected HaMoked's claim that the eldest should be given status equal to that of her mother and siblings.
