العربية
HE
العربية
HE
Time and again, HaMoked has to fight arbitrary refusals and severe foot-dragging on the part of the Ministry of Interior in handling applications to grant status in Israel to minors from the indigenous population of East Jerusalem. Thus, sometimes even into adulthood, these Palestinians are condemned to remain without any status in the world and without social security rights in their own homes. As they are stateless, they cannot receive services from the National Insurance Institute or health insurance at the HMOs. They cannot register for school or open a bank account, work legally, obtain a driver's license or travel documents, and they are at risk of arrest at all times. Because of all this, they find it difficult to start a family and maintain social relationships. In many of the cases, these are people who already suffer from complex, even tragic socio-economic problems. Nonetheless, it can take years of persistent efforts to bring the Ministry of the Interior to give them their rightful status to allow them to rehabilitate their lives.
Thus in the case of two East Jerusalem Palestinian children, a boy born in 2005 and a girl born in 2008, who have lived in Israel and East Jerusalem their entire lives. Their father, an East Jerusalem resident, and their mother, an oPt resident, separated when the children were young and both established new families. In 2015, following the chaotic family situation, the children were removed by the welfare authorities and placed in boarding schools and have stayed there since. Over the years, the father repeatedly applied to have the children registered in the population registry but to no avail. The social services and the father therefore sought HaMoked’s assistance and on October 10, 2022, HaMoked sent a reminder to the Ministry of Interior regarding the last registration application of 2016, and submitted updated documentation, noting that leaving the children stateless in this case was particularly unacceptable given that they were under the care of the State most of their lives, and have no substantive tie elsewhere in the world. The Ministry of Interior responded on October 20, 2022, that the application was in process. HaMoked sent additional reminders but the months passed without any Ministry of Interior decision in the case.
Therefore, more than 9 months later, on July 16, 2023, HaMoked via attys. Adi Lustigman and Tamir Blank submitted an appeal to the Appeals Tribunal against the protracted failure to issue a decision, more urgent than ever given that the eldest child was about to become an adult while still stateless, which would prevent him from acquiring education and a profession, and starting life as an independent adult.
The Tribunal ordered the State to respond within 30 days, but this did not happen. Therefore, on December 7, 2023, HaMoked asked that the Tribunal order the State to submit a response. The Tribunal ordered the State to submit a response within 10 days, but the State continued to stall. Only on March 3, 2024, the Ministry of Interior sent HaMoked an urgent demand to submit additional documents “within 45 days… [Otherwise] we will regard your client’s application as cancelled and it will be dismissed outright”. On the following day, the State updated the Tribunal on the decision to require additional documents, claiming that this trivial matter warranted dismissal of the appeal. On March 12, 2024, the Tribunal dismissed the appeal and ruled that the Ministry of Interior must reach a new decision within 90 days of the applicants’ submission of all requested documentation,
On May 22, 2024, the Ministry of Interior decided to grant the two children temporary status for two years, after which their status would be upgraded to permanent residency. Thus ended the years-long battle and the children finally have the opportunity to forge a normative life for themselves.
