The Petitioners, a resident of Jerusalem and a resident of Bethlehem, married in 1992 and have since lived in Jerusalem. The Petitioners have four children, three of whom were born in Jerusalem and registered in the Israeli Population Registry. The petition concerns their youngest son, who was born in Bethlehem, and seeks to secure his registration in the Israeli Population Registry.
At the time the boy was born his mother was staying at her parent’s home in Bethlehem. When she went into labor she attempted to enter Jerusalem in order to have her child in the city. This was in 2001, before the Petitioners’ application for family unification was approved, and she did not hold a permit to enter Israel and remain there temporarily. Her husband was not with her at the time and the soldiers at the checkpoint refused to let her enter Jerusalem. After the mother began to bleed she was rushed from the checkpoint to a hospital in Bethlehem where her son was born by Caesarian section. A few weeks later, she returned to Jerusalem with her son; they have lived in the city since then.
In 2006 the Petitioners submitted an application for family unification (for the child’s mother) and for the registration of their youngest son in the Israeli Population Registry. The Petitioners attached a “notification of live birth” from the hospital in Bethlehem to the application on behalf of the son. It should be emphasized that a “notification of live birth” does not testify to registration in the Territories. The Ministry of the Interior instructed the Petitioners to obtain an official birth certificate from the Palestinian Authority without an identification number (which also does not testify to registration in the Palestinian registry) in order to register their son in Israel. The Petitioners were later informed that as a
condition for their son’s registration in Israel they must register him in the Palestinian Authority and obtain a Palestinian passport in his name. HaMoked submitted a petition to the Court for Administrative Affaires on behalf of the family following this demand.
In the petition HaMoked argues that the Interior Ministry's conduct is extremely unreasonable. The Petitioners’ son has no affinity to the Territories; as such, his registration in the Population Registry maintained by the Palestinian Authority will be fictitious. There are no reasonable grounds for registering the child in the Population Registry in the Territories, both since he was not registered in this area on his birth and in view of the fact that he has lived in Jerusalem for his entire life. There is no dispute between the parties that the family’s "center of life" is in Jerusalem, since the ministry recently approved the husband’s application for family unification with his wife. Moreover, one of the reasons for the division of responsibilities between the Palestinian Authority and Israel regarding the management of the Population Registry is to prevent duplication in the two registries. Accordingly, a person who receives permanent status in Israel is deleted from the Palestinian registry.
Following the
Nofal case (AA 727/06
Nofal et al. v Ministry of the Interior et al.), the Ministry of the Interior issued a procedure concerning the registration of children only one of whose parents is a permanent resident in Israel. According to the procedure, such children will first receive “A/5” status (temporary residency) in Israel for two years, and their status will then be upgraded to a permanent status. The procedure does not present any requirement that a child born in the Territories but not registered there must first be registered in the Palestinian registry as a
condition for registration in the Israeli registry.
It is worth noting that HaMoked has numerous reservations regarding the procedure; the petition in the course of which the procedure was adopted is still pending. Regardless of this, however, this is the procedure that currently binds the Ministry of the Interior.
