On November 19, 2014, the National Insurance Institute (NII) revoked the health insurance of three toddlers, siblings aged six, four and two, who are all Israeli residents; thus were family members informed by the staff of the Clalit Health Services when arrived at their local health clinic to visit the physician. Two of the children have chronic health problems and need regular medical treatment and monitoring. A day before the revocation, their father carried out the fatal attack at the Har Nof synagogue in Jerusalem.
HaMoked thereupon contacted the NII to demand a copy of the revocation decision, but received no answer. In a phone conversation with the NII's spokesperson's office, the spokeswoman expressed scorn at HaMoked's decision to assist an assailant's children.
On December 3, 2014,
HaMoked wrote again to the NII to demand a copy of the decision. HaMoked noted that the NII seemed to flout the family's right to a hearing, required in any proper administrative process, and stressed that the NII had no legal grounds for revoking the children's residency – children who had been living in Jerusalem their entire lives and were duly registered as Israeli residents. HaMoked demanded the NII immediately restore the children's wrongfully-denied residency status and social security rights.
In a response to the media, the NII contended that the children's residency had expired automatically upon the death of the father, because the mother was a West Bank Palestinian undergoing family unification in Israel. In all the years HaMoked has handled cases of family unification in East Jerusalem, never has it come across such "automatic expiry" of NII-residency recognition regarding children from East Jerusalem; it therefore seems that this is simply a vindictive act directed against the innocent children of an assailant.
Furthermore, following the attack, the Ministry of Interior has been independently acting to deport from Israel the children's mother, who lives in the city as part of a family unification procedure.
HaMoked petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ) to request the state be ordered not deport the woman until she exhausted her rights in court. The court has issued a temporary injunction prohibiting her deportation pending further decision.
