A permanent Israeli resident, divorced from a West Bank resident, has been raising her five children on her own in East Jerusalem since 1999. The three older children were registered at birth in the population registry of the Occupied Palestinian territories (OPT), whereas the two youngest received permanent residency status in Israel.
In August 2000, the woman applied to the Ministry of Interior to grant her three eldest children Israeli status. The Ministry of Interior did not bother to respond to the application or the reminders sent in following years. Only in 2006, did the ministry reach a decision on the request, based on the assertion that the children were “residents of the Area”, and as such come under the purview of
the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order) 5763 - 2003. According to the Temporary Order, a child over 14 years old cannot receive Israeli status, only military stay permits issued by the civil administration in the OPT. Thus, the ministry determined that the youngest boy would be registered as a temporary resident, and the older two would receive temporary military stay permits that do not afford Israeli status or social benefits or rights.
On September 21, 2006,
HaMoked filed an administrative petition to instruct the Ministry of Interior to grant all three children permanent residency in Israel. Proceedings on the petition were stayed pending
judgment in the 'Aweisat case concerning the Temporary Order's definition of “resident of the Area”. After the judgment was rendered, the Ministry of Interior offered to grant permanent residency to the youngest boy, and temporary residency to the older two.
HaMoked objected and persisted that all three should be granted permanent residency in Israel, given that on May 1, 2002 – which by the ministry's method of reckoning, counts as the date of the initial application – the Temporary Order was still in the offing, hence not be applicable to their case. Furthermore, the children meet the stern criteria of the Temporary Order, having been under the age of 14 on the date of the initial application. Alternatively, HaMoked argued that the Order was not applicable to the children, as they were not “residents of the Area”, but the children of an Israeli resident, who maintain their center of life in Israel, and have no ties to the West Bank.
On May 1, 2011,
the Court for Administrative Affairs endorsed the petition and ordered to grant permanent residency to all three children. In the judgment, Justice Sobel determined that although it was possible to construe the petitioners as “residents of the Area”, it had no bearing on the issue. In reliance on the Supreme Court’s
judgement in the Srur case, the justice ruled that for the purpose of permanent residency, the interior ministry should consider the children’s ages at the time of the initial application, i.e. May 2002. On that date, the Temporary Order was yet to be enacted, and in any event, the children then were under 14 and it was fully possible to grant them permanent residency, subject to their completion of the graduated procedure as required. Additionally, the state was ordered to pay the petitioners NIS 5000 in trial costs.
