The son of a permanent resident was born in Jerusalem in 1991, and registered in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). For several years, his family lived in the village of Ni'lin in the West Bank, before it returned to live in Kafr 'Aqab in Jerusalem.
In 2004, his mother applied to the Ministry of Interior to enter five of her children, including him, in the Israeli population registry. In April 2006, the Ministry of Interior granted the boy temporary residency for a period of two years. At the end of that period, his parents applied to the Ministry of Interior to have his status upgraded to permanent residency, as per the "procedure for the registration of a child with only one permanent-resident parent". The application was refused on the grounds that the child was over the age of 14, and under the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order), permanent residency must not be granted to a "resident of the Area" past the age of 14. The claim is based on the interior ministry's interpretation to the Temporary Order, formalized in the "procedure for child registration". Under the procedure, the ministry considers the applicant's age at the time of his application for an upgrade to permanent residency, rather than his age two years before, when his application to be entered in the population registry was accepted. Thereby, the Ministry of Interior effectively lowered the maximum age of eligibility for permanent residency to 12, contrary to the provisions of the Law.
In November 2008, HaMoked filed an
administrative petition on the son's behalf, pleading, inter alia, that by this decision, the Ministry of Interior was breaching its obligation to act in the best interests of Israeli residents' children, as well as the Supreme Court's ruling on the issue. HaMoked argued further that the refusal subverted the aim of Regulation 12 of the Entry into Israel Regulations, to ensure that a child's status matches the status of his Israeli resident parent. Under the Regulation, an Israeli-born child of an Israeli resident is entitled to permanent residency. The fact that he had been registered in the OPT previously has no bearing on the issue.
In June 2009,
the Court for Administrative Affairs accepted the petition, and ordered the state to upgrade the son's status to permanent residency. The court accepted HaMoked's arguments and ruled that the interior ministry's practice of granting temporary residency to children over 12, thereby denying them permanent residency on the grounds that the Law does not allow upgrading the status of children over 14, subverts the provisions of the Law.
The Ministry of Interior appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, arguing that the respondent had ties to "the Area", and therefore, there was no obligation to grant him permanent residency in Israel. On April 27, 2011,
the Supreme Court rejected the interior ministry's appeal and ruled the respondent must be granted permanent residency in Israel.
In its judgment, the court considered whether "a license to reside in Israel", as defined by the Law, which the Minister of Interior may grant to a minor under 14, is restricted to permanent residency only. The court ruled otherwise and stipulated the Ministry of Interior may grant any type of residency license to minors under 14. Concerning the "procedure for child registration", the court held that the current procedure cannot remain as it is, as it effectively "denies minors the possibility to obtain the status clearly granted to them under primary legislation. This is a direct and substantial injury to their right which is incommensurate with the legislative arrangement". In the present case, the court ruled that the determining age for granting permanent residency was the age at which the application was submitted - provided it preceded age 14.
