On January 25, 2017,
Minister of Interior Deri announced his decision to revoke the status of eleven relatives of a man who perpetrated an attack against Israelis in Armon HaNatziv, Jerusalem, on January 8, 2017. HaMoked represents five of the relatives who
received notices on the revocation of their status given in the framework of the family unification procedure.
Despite
HaMoked’s objection to the expedited revocation proceedings and the inherently wrongful decision to revoke their status in Israel – based on extraneous considerations and the fact that they are related to the attacker – the Minister of Interior saw fit to condemn these people to deportation from their homes, tearing them away from their families and community, for no wrong on their part.
HaMoked therefore filed
urgent appeals to the Appeals Tribunal, requesting the Tribunal to prevent the five family members’ deportation from Israel and to order the revocation of the illicit decision.
That same day the Tribunal issued temporary orders suspending the Minister of Interior’s decision for the time being.
In
its responses to the appeals, submitted June 6, 2017, the state wrote thus: “In the village of Jabal al-Mukabber an atmosphere favoring terror attacks prevails, while practicing a personality cult for the attackers… aggrandizing terror attacks and attackers… [This atmosphere] promotes terror and encourages other youths to commit terror attacks. Therefore, the revocation of status will assist in creating significant deterrence against the intensification of the phenomenon”. In other words, the state cannot accomplish its tasks with the available legal toolkit, and so it pushes the responsibility onto the shoulders of a few innocent people who cannot defend themselves when faced with a discriminatory legal system.
One of the family members whose status the Minister of Interior has
decided to revoke is the attacker’s mother, who has been living in Jerusalem for some thirty years, made her home in the city and raised her children there.
In its response to the appeal, the Ministry of Interior reiterated its claim that the woman was in a bigamous marriage, and that she had received her status in Israel based on “false information” she provided to the ministry. In the words of the state: “the Respondent’s principle position is that an application which turns out to be based on false details, is not to be considered at all, thus even in the absence of connection to the substantive issue and the question whether the applicant was entitled to submit his application also based on the true facts”.
A hearing in the appeals has been scheduled for September 10, 2017.
