HaMoked calls on the Ministry of the Interior: End the mistreatment and humiliation of persons seeking services from the East Jerusalem population administration bureau

HaMoked has repeatedly cautioned Ministry of Interior staff regarding the ongoing harm caused to people who seek the services of the population administration bureau in East Jerusalem for over two years. In a letter to the ministry of the interior sent on August 26, 2009, HaMoked raises a number of problems which the Interior Ministry has acknowledged for some time and has even promised HaMoked it would act vigorously to find solutions for them. However, still today, two years after HaMoked's appeal, nothing has changed.

The population administration bureau in Wadi Joz is supposed to serve tens of thousands of East Jerusalem residents. The authorities saw fit to place the employment bureau in the same building. The proximity of these two offices, which naturally draw many people, leads to very high traffic in the building and intolerable overcrowding at the very entrance to it. The line up normally spills onto the street, and residents are forced to wait without shelter from the elements. They must wait for some two hours before they can see a bureau staff person. Upon entering the building, the residents are ordered to stand in yet another line and undergo a humiliating security search during which women are required to remove their earrings.

It must be noted that throughout the long wait, residents have no access to bathrooms and there is no seating for the elderly and the physically disabled. Security guards, who are also in charge of maintaining order, demand that residents form impeccable straight lines. Any movement results in shouting and threats on the part of the security guards, as well as punishments such as ceasing to let people into the bureau.

HaMoked's demand in this matter is but one in a series of complaints the organization had to make in recent months: all share the same common theme: disrespectful and humiliating treatment by the ministry of the interior of persons seeking its services, whether in writing or orally. HaMoked also rejects the Ministry's attempts to shirk responsibility for the intolerable situation in the bureau, while pointing an accusing finger at the employment bureau which is in the same building. Many of the complaints in the letter address the conduct of the bureau and its employees toward residents. HaMoked demands the ministry of the interior urgently address the claims it raises and specify the measures, to which it had committed in the past, for rectifying the situation.