In 1994, a Jordanian woman got married to an Israeli resident and came to live with him in East Jerusalem. The couple had four children, all of whom born in Jerusalem and listed as permanent residents in Israel. Since early in her marriage, the woman has been the constant victim of her husband's extreme violence. Having moved to a foreign land, the woman lives far from her family in Jordan and is entirely dependent upon her abusive husband and his family, ever-supportive of him despite his violence towards her.
Aside from physically abusing her, the husband also delayed acting to legalize her status in Israel vis a vis the Ministry of Interior. Early on, in 1994, the couple filed a family unification application for her and she entered into the graduated procedure for permanent status. Moreover, in 2001, she received her first temporary residence visa (A5 visa). When the visa expired, the couple was summoned to apply for an extension, but the husband was then in detention and the process was suspended. In 2003, the interior ministry notified them that their family unification application had been revoked and that the process should be restarted. Only in 2007, did the husband consent to resubmit the family unification application for his wife, but the process was stayed by the interior ministry pending resolution of criminal proceedings against the husband. The woman remained without status in Israel.
Foreign spouses of Israelis do not have an independent right to residency status in Israel, and it is up to the Israeli partner to apply for status for the foreign spouse. Therefore, in effect, the woman was a hostage of her husband, who by neglecting to regularize her status forced her into becoming an illegal resident. His refusals and neglect to pursue the family unification process were another means of control the abusive husband used his wife, making her dependent upon his arbitrary will.
Courageously, after years of humiliation and anguish, the woman applied to HaMoked to assist her in obtaining Israeli status.
HaMoked appealed to the inter-ministerial committee on humanitarian affairs at the interior ministry, to grant permanent residency status to the woman, allowing her to rebuild her life with her the children at her side.
HaMoked requested the committee to consider the woman's application according to the procedure for handling a termination of a graduated procedure for status of spouses due to the Israeli spouse's violence. The interior ministry established the procedure following an increased number of cases in which the graduated family unification procedure had been terminated due to a marital breakup due to the Israeli husband's violence towards his spouse. The procedure aims to enable such women to receive Israeli status independently from their husbands, so otherwise they would not avoid complaining against their husbands out of fear of deportation. The woman in this case qualifies under the criteria of the procedure, her marriage was genuine and she had even entered the graduated procedure. Had her husband acted promptly to legalize her status, she would have completed the graduated procedure and would have already become a permanent resident in Israel.
HaMoked further requested that the woman be given temporary status in Israel, pending final decision of the inter-ministerial committee on her case. The committee proceedings are likely to last a long time, and the woman urgently needed some stability to allow her to rebuild her life. With temporary status, the woman could start working and providing for herself and her children, and stop being dependent on her abusive husband's family. In October 2011, after three months had passed without a reply on the request for temporary status, HaMoked submitted an administrative appeal to the appellate committee for foreigners, seeking temporary status pending decision on the application.
On January 9, 2012, the
decision of the chair of the appellate committee for foreigners was handed down, instructing the interior ministry to issue the woman a one-year residence and work visa. Although it does not provide temporary status, which renders its holder eligible to social benefits, this B1 visa entitles the woman to remain in Israel and legally earn her living, and allows her to leave for Jordan to visit her family, which she has not seen for several years, and return to Israel legally.
The woman's application for residency status is still awaiting a decision by the inter-ministerial committee on humanitarian affairs.
