العربية
HE
العربية
HE
On April 25, 2022, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ) to revoke the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order) of March 2022. The organizations argued that the Law is racist and brands all Palestinians as a security threat to prevent them from obtaining family-unification-based residency status in Israel. The petitioners also argued that the Law violates a range of basic rights of those who have been allowed to stay in Israel and have become over time de facto residents of the State – with particular harm to women victims of domestic abuse and children who grow up with no status in Israel.
The Government’s response of November 13, 2022 argued that all the petitions against the Law that were joined under a single proceeding, including HaMoked’s petition, should be dismissed, given that the Law was constitutional and proportionate. Following the hearing held on December 1, 2022, the Court instructed the State to submit a notice within 90 days regarding its willingness to alter the Law’s definition of “Resident of the Area”; to include same-sex partners in the category of “permit to spouses”; expand the possibility to grant temporary residency to women age 40 and up; and also to explain the need for the annual quota established in the Law for humanitarian requests for status.
In an updating notice on behalf of the Government of July 27, 2023, the State updated that following a meeting between the Minister of Interior and representatives of the security entities, the Population and Immigration Authority and the Ministry of Justice, the Minister had decided to “gradually” allow grant of temporary residency status (A/5) to “women aged 40-50… [who are] spouses of an Israeli citizen or resident who have been staying in Israel under a [military stay] permit for at least 10 years”, and subject to their meeting the required conditions for such requests. It was also noted that according to Ministry of Interior data, there are now 1,300 such women.
The State also announced that the Minister of Interior had decided that it would be possible to examine a family-unification request filed on behalf of “those who were found to be registered as ‘Residents of the Area’ [i.e., the West Bank] but that had no ties to the Area beyond their registration”, and provided they had never lived in one of the countries listed in the annex to the Law (Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria). It was also announced that “the aforesaid has no reflection on the State’s consistent position whereby the definition of Resident of the Area lies at the heart of the arrangement” established in the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law.
As to the Court’s instruction to allow family unification for same-sex couples, the State announced that the Minister of Interior had decided such requests would remain under the consideration of the humanitarian committee established under the Law. Additionally, the Minister decided to leave unchanged the – unjustifiable and low – quota set in the Law for granting status on humanitarian grounds, which stands at 48 request approvals per year. The State provided data on this matter, according to which, thus far in 2023, 132 requests had been submitted to the humanitarian committee, and that 14 such requests (from unspecified years) had been approved by the Minister, granting applicants either temporary residency or military stay permits. The State also informed that in 2022 the quota had been filled. In conclusion, the State claimed that “in view of the Minister of Interior’s decisions regarding most of the points on which the Court had asked for concrete consideration, the Respondents’ position is that the [Citizenship and Entry into Israel] Law … is constitutional and therefore does not give rise to judicial intervention regarding its stipulations”.
