In a study compelled and published by the AIC, we presented four cases in which the right of residency was denied to spouses of Palestinian citizens of Israel. In one case, a citizen’s wife was even deported. These cases are only a small sample of what is - according to our evaluations - a widespread phenomenon involving dozens of new cases each year.
A detailed letter presenting the issue to the Minister of Interior has remained unanswered, but the media coverage given to the study has already led to some positive results:
- Various Members of Knesset, among them the Chairman of the Knesset Committee on Law and Constitution, MK Dedi Tzuker, decided to deal with the issue on the legislative level.
- One of the cases presented in the AIC study - which also served as the background to a report broadcast on the TV news - was resolved thanks to a quick initiative by the Ministry of Interior.
- Additional victims of the discriminatory policy in residency granting have started to turn for help to the Israeli-Palestinian Project for Family Reunification, a fact which enables us to get a more comprehensive picture of the problem, and to deal with it more efficiently both on the legal level and in our dealings with the officials on the Ministry of the Interior.
Progress made on both levels will be reported in the next issue of ARTICLE 74.
