Center for the Defence of the Individual - Court's decision following HaMoked's petition: a child whose parents are both permanent residents is entitled to be granted permanent status directly, even if he was not born in Israel
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חזרה לעמוד הקודם
08.12.2011

Court's decision following HaMoked's petition: a child whose parents are both permanent residents is entitled to be granted permanent status directly, even if he was not born in Israel

In November 2001, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem who is an Israeli resident sought to register her 6 year old son, born in a West Bank hospital, in the Israeli population registry. The Ministry of Interior, however, did not process her application. The mother resubmitted the request in August 2005, again without response. Only following HaMoked's application on her behalf, filed in June 2008, did the interior ministry condescend to examine the request, but continued to delay its decision.

On August 25, 2009 – after HaMoked had to resort to the appellate committee for foreigners in an administrative objection against the postponement of decision – the interior ministry informed that the child – whose parents are Israeli residents both – would not be listed as a permanent resident but as a temporary resident for a period of two years. The decision was based on the claim that the child's "center of life" must be considered, and such according to the procedure for granting status to a child with one Israeli resident parent and one foreign parent. The procedure allows the ministry to examine whether a family with one resident parent, seeks to stay in Israel permanently. Note that next, in its response to HaMoked's petition, the state acknowledged that both parents and child have been living in Israel for years.

HaMoked insisted that the child should be given permanent status without delay. In February 2011, the appellate committee for foreigners dismissed HaMoked's objection, finding "no reason to interfere" with the interior ministry's decision.

HaMoked petitioned to the Court for Administrative Affairs, arguing the child, without status in the world, has been living with his family in East Jerusalem for over a decade – roughly the same period as that of the ministry's delay of the decision. HaMoked requested the court to order the interior ministry to grant the child permanent status directly, and also to declare as a principle of law that a child whose parents are both permanent residents is entitled to receive permanent status even if not born in Israel.

In the hearing, the Ministry of Interior accepted HaMoked's demand for an overarching demand, but refused to grant the petitioner permanent status directly, claiming that until the age of 5 (from 1995 until 2000) he had lived with his parents in the West Bank.

On December 7, 2011, the court granted HaMoked's petition, ruling that the interior ministry must "immediately grant the petitioner the status of permanent resident". The judge endorsed the parties' agreement of principle, whereby a child born outside Israel who lives in Israel and his parents are both permanent residents, is entitled to receive permanent residency directly. The court further held that the state's stance on the particular case contradicted its general position and exceeded the standard of reasonableness. The judge determined that the ministry's years-long disregard of the mother's requests constituted a "failure", and pronounced that "it is impossible on the one hand to delay the processing of the request for such a long period, and still claim, at the stage where the petitioner has been with his mother and brother in Israel for nine years, that there is a concern that they might return to the area".