In August 2005, a Jerusalem resident married a Hebron resident, and from then on both have been living in Jerusalem with their three daughters and his three other children from a previous marriage, ages 5, 8 and 10. Their birth mother had relocated to Jordan, re-married and maintains only a slight connection with her children. The Sharia Court decreed that the step mother has legal custody of the children and they are in her care, jointly with their father. In February 2007, she applied for family unification for her husband and his three children.
The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order), stipulates that the Interior Minister is entitled to grant an Israeli stay permit to a resident of the Occupied Palestinian Territories who is over 35 years old, so as to prevent his separation from his spouse who is lawfully staying in Israel; additionally, the Temporary Order stipulates that the Interior Minister may grant an Israeli residency permit to a minor who is under the age of 14, to prevent his separation from his parent who is lawfully staying in Israel. According to the "accompanying minor" procedure of the Interior Ministry, once the alien spouse receives Israeli status, his children from a previous marriage may also be included - so long as they are under the age of 15, and they "are to be granted the same status as the status of the invited parent". The procedure's aim is to prevent cases of children without status.
Following the mother's application, the Interior Ministry was satisfied that this is indeed a single family unit, granting the request for family unification. The father received temporary stay permits in Israel under the Temporary Order. However, although under the Temporary Order, the children were supposed to receive to Israeli residency permits, they too, received stay permits only – which means they remained without any social security rights, including the rights for health insurance, education and so forth.
HaMoked appealed to the Interior Ministry on behalf of the family, requesting to upgrade the children's status to that of permanent residents. The Interior Ministry denied the appeal, stating that under the accompanying minor procedure, the children were entitled to the same status as their father, and given that the father had been given stay permits, there was no call to upgrade his children's status. HaMoked filed a petition to the Court for Administrative Affairs, which was deleted after the Interior Ministry notified that the matter would be brought before the appellate committee for foreigners. In November 2009, the appellate committee rejected the request. On February 25, 2010,
HaMoked filed an administrative petition, requesting the court to instruct the Interior Ministry to grant the children permanent residency status, and to stipulate that as a rule decisions on the status of minors would not be affected by the Temporary Order.
HaMoked argues that the fact that the Temporary Order prevents the granting of Israeli status to the father for the time being, should not influence the granting of status to his children, given that it is intended to avert a state security risk, which does not emanate from minors under the age of 14. HaMoked further states that the purpose of the accompanying minor procedure is to allow a custodial parent who remarries, to continue to care for his children in Israel also, with the full support and social assistance the State of Israel undertook to provide to families with children. Furthermore, as a rule, under the interior ministry's procedures, minors under the age of 14 should not to be granted stay permits, but rather Israeli residency permits.
On June 13, 2010, at the conclusion of petition hearing, the judge pronounced that judgment will be delivered in a few months time, after careful review of the parties' argumentations.
