A Palestinian resident of the West Bank married a resident of East Jerusalem in 1989, and moved to live with her husband and his first wife in Jerusalem’s Abu Tur neighborhood. The couple had three children who were registered as residents of East Jerusalem and had received their education in schools in the city.
The Ministry of Interior refuses to grant status to women who are in a polygamous marriage, as polygamy is a criminal offense under Israeli law. Thus, under the guise of protecting these women, who already suffer due to their inferior status inside the polygamous marriage, Israel compounds their oppression by denying them status and the rights that come with it. Because of this, the husband was unable to file a family unification application for his wife, and she had lived in Jerusalem for years without status and without a permit.
In 1998, the husband passed away. The second wife was charged with the care of her three children, and her husband’s first wife, who was elderly and infirm. With no source of income, the family was forced to live mainly off national insurance pensions.
On July 18, 2007, HaMoked contacted the humanitarian committee of the Ministry of Interior on the widow’s behalf, seeking permanent residency status. When no response arrived for 16 months,
HaMoked petitioned the High Court of Justice, demanding status for the woman. HaMoked argued that the relationship between the spouses had been genuine and official and there was no doubt that the woman’s center-of-life was in Jerusalem, where she had then lived for about twenty years. HaMoked also argued that in refusing to grant the widow status, the Ministry of Interior was undermining the best interests of the children and impinging on the right to family life of both the children and their mother.
It was only after the petition was filed that the Ministry of Interior
responded that the woman would be granted temporary stay permits so long as her children were minors. This decision effectively sentenced the woman to deportation as soon as her youngest child reached adulthood. HaMoked refused to accept this decision and argued that the arrangement proposed by the ministry provided only temporary relief for the woman’s predicament.
On February 10, 2011, the court referred the widow’s matter back to the ministry’s humanitarian committee, asking that the committee “consider the length of stay in Israel, the fact that the petitioner was a widow and the fact that all her children live in the country”. The committee reconsidered the case, but, in defiance of the court’s instructions, refused once again, disregarding the widow’s serious humanitarian circumstances. Following the refusal, the court again asked the ministry to reconsider. The court reprimanded the ministry and criticized the manner in which it ignored the court’s instructions and held fast to its unyielding position.
On November 3, 2011, seven years after HaMoked began assisting the woman, and following the court’s comments, the Ministry of Interior
announced the woman’s temporary stay permits would no longer hinge on the age of her children, and so, today, when all her children have reached adulthood, she is able to stay and live with them under the same roof. HaMoked attempted to require a declaration that the woman could apply for status in future rather than remain with renewable stay permits as a condition for withdrawing the petition, but the state objected, and the court ultimately accepted its position and dismissed the petition.
