On July 22, 2015, at 9:00 a.m., the High Court of Justice will hold a hearing on HaMoked’s petition against the Minister of Interior’s decision to deport from Israel the widow of one of the perpetrators of the attack at the Har Nof synagogue. The woman, who came from the OPT, had been undergoing family unification in Israel since 2009 and is the mother of three minors – two boys aged six and three, and a girl aged four – who are residents of Israel.
The woman heard about the revocation of her stay permit only from media reports published on November 26, 2014, about a week after her husband carried out the attack. The Ministry of Interior gave her an official notice on the revocation only following HaMoked’s intervention. The notice stated that the family unit “ceased to exist” upon the husband’s death, and as “almost” all of her relatives were residents of the OPT, there was nothing to prevent her returning to live there with her family.
Immediately after the official notice arrived, on November 30, 2014,
HaMoked petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ) to direct the authorities to refrain from deporting the woman from Israel until she exhausted her rights before the court. HaMoked asserted that the guiltless woman had fallen victim to the Minister of Interior's summary procedure, triggered by the authorities’ desire to exact vengeance on her for the actions of her husband. HaMoked stressed that no security allegation had ever been raised against the woman, nor had it been claimed that her mere presence in Israel was threatening public security. HaMoked also argued that the decision to revoke the woman's Israeli stay permit completely disregarded her three small children, as well as the fact that the deportation meant either tearing her away from her children, or deporting the children – who are permanent Israeli residents –to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) along with their mother. HaMoked also pointed out that two of the children suffer from chronic medical problems and required continuous medical care and supervision.
In its
response from December 8, 2014, the state argued that the graduated family unification procedure, pursuant to which the woman was present in Israel, had terminated upon the husband's death and so her case had been transferred for the recommendation of the humanitarian committee advising the Minister of Interior. Later on, the state sent HaMoked the transcript of the humanitarian committee “hearing”, which indicated that the committee members – who delivered their positions on the telephone(!) – agreed that "the application has no special humanitarian grounds". The transcript contained also the position of the Israel Security Agency (ISA), whereby the woman’s deportation from Israel formed part of a move intended "to create deterrence and deliver a public message that terror attacks of this sort will not be tolerated without a complete and comprehensive response."
On March 24, 2015, the Minister of Interior published a
renewed decision on the woman’s case. The Minister concluded that he found nothing in HaMoked’s arguments to prompt him to change his original decision. The Minister highlighted the vindictive nature of his decision by adding that “the entire circumstances will be examined in the case of a woman who has been widowed in a natural way, as in the case of a woman who has been widowed in an unnatural way”. In blatant disregard of previous cases, the Minister also determined that if the children relocated to the West Bank with their mother, their rights as Israeli residents would not be harmed.
On April 16, 2015, HaMoked submitted an
amended petition to the HCJ, demanding the repeal of the Minister’s decision. HaMoked argued that this was an arbitrary and discriminatory decision, motivated by extraneous consideration, founded on partial facts, and, moreover, violated both the principle of the child's best interests and the right to family life of innocent people. HaMoked also challenged the Minister's determination that the children's status in Israel would not be harmed, and recalled that shortly after the Minister's intention to deport the family had been published, the National Insurance Institute (NII) had hastened to revoke the children's entitlement to health insurance and social benefits. Only following
HaMoked's intervention, did it retract its decision. HaMoked added that in other cases of widows of permanent Israeli residents who were mothers of small children, the Minister had consistently allowed the women to live on in Jerusalem pursuant to stay permits.
The state
countered that the decision to deport the woman was reasonable, and did not warrant judicial intervention; this, especially given the young age of the children and the fact that they were not in any “emergency medical condition”.
As stated, the petition will be heard on July 22, 2015, by Justices Rubinstein, Joubran and Hendel.
