Issue No.6 February 2007

In Brief

In a precedent-setting ruling, the Tel Aviv District Court accepted ACRI's petition and allocated four months to the Ministry of the Interior to set a procedure to formalize the status of stateless persons.

The Right to a Bed

In a decisive ruling, the High Court of Justice accepted the petition submitted by ACRI and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, and ordered the State to provide a bed for every prisoner and to end the practice of forcing prisoners to sleep on the floor.

In a landmark ruling in November 2006, an expanded panel of seven Supreme Court Justices ordered the state to register the marriage of same-sex couples who marry outside Israel.

Dismantle Hebron Barrier

The High Court of Justice accepted the petitions submitted by ACRI and Rabbis for Human Rights, and ordered the dismantlement of the concrete wall in the southern Hebron Hills which is being built in addition to the Separation Barrier in that area, and isolates over 80,000 dunams of land and 21 Palestinian communities from the rest of the West Bank. In a separate petition the Court also ordered the State to explain, within 45 days, the reasons behind the route of the Separation Barrier in the area between Qaliqilya and Tulkaram. (Full text)

Migrant Workers' Rights

In response to a petition submitted by ACRI and the Hotline for Migrant Workers, the Supreme Court called on the state to provide details of action it has taken to initiate legislative revisions of the Law of Entry into Israel.

ACRI Protests Racist Selection

ACRI submitted an urgent lawsuit to the Tel Aviv - Jaffa District Court against the owners and organizers of a party held at the Tel Aviv nightclub, Comfort 13, for students of the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, who denied entry to three Ethiopian youths who study at the center.

Revoke Shin Bet Classifications

ACRI, as part of a coalition of social change organizations, petitioned the Supreme Court to demand that the Shin Bet rescind the classification of "Shin Bet prohibited" that is applied to large numbers of Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories.

ACRI's Public Hotline

ACRI operates a “Public Hotline” for consultation and information on rights entitlement: 02-6521218 (Jerusalem and the south), 03-5608185 (Tel Aviv, the Sharon area and the center of the country), and 04-8526333/4/5 (Haifa and the north of the country).

No State for Love: Violations of the Right to Family of Migrant Workers in Israel
In December 2006, to coincide with Human Rights Week, ACRI and Kav LaOved published a position paper on the violations of the right to family of migrant workers in Israel. The paper, which succeeded in generating high-profile media coverage, was also discussed in a specially convened session of the Knesset Committee on Migrant Workers. The paper was co-written by ACRI Attorney Oded Feller and Kav LaOved attorney Hanny Ben Israel.

"We asked for workers, but we got people"

G., a migrant worker from the Philippines employed in Israel as a care giver, became pregnant with her partner, a migrant worker from Thailand. G. was informed by the Interior Ministry that after giving birth, her child would not be able to remain in Israel. She would need to choose between leaving Israel with her baby and sending the infant to her family in the Philippines. For G., the only realistic option was to entrust her baby to another female migrant worker, who she paid to accompany the newborn to the Philippines. Afterward, when G. applied to the Interior Ministry to renew her work permit, she was told that a new procedure was in effect: since she had given birth in Israel, her work permit would not be renewed, and she was now required to leave the country. A short time later, even before she had time to consider her predicament, G. was arrested. The Interior Ministry had decided to deport G. because she was the mother of a child born in Israel and because she was in a relationship with another migrant worker. Only after the Hotline for Migrant Workers petitioned the Tel Aviv District Court in this matter did the Interior Ministry release G. on bail and allow her to continue working in Israel – contingent on a signed affidavit that she did not have a steady partner.

For most of us, the right to family life seems natural; something that we take for granted. We tend not to reflect on what our lives would be like if we were denied this right. How would we feel and behave if the authorities were to forbid us from loving, sharing our lives with our partners, having sexual relations, creating a family unit, or bringing children into the world?
To read the rest of the paper, click here.

Judge orders state to set procedure for handling stateless persons
By Shahar Ilan

The following article, which concerns a precedent-setting ruling issued by the Tel Aviv District Court in response to a petition submitted by ACRI, appeared on the front page of Ha'aretz on January 31, 2007.

Tel Aviv District Court Vice President Michal Rubinstein instructed the Ministry of Interior earlier this week to determine a procedure for the handling of non-citizens residing in the country within the next four months.

Rubinstein's ruling was handed down at the Administrative Court in response to three petitions filed by non-citizens born in the former Soviet Union. The petitioners were represented by lawyer Oded Feller, of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).

Rubinstein also determined that refusal to grant the three petitioners residence and work permits contradicts the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom, and instructed that permits be issued. At the same time she turned down the petitioners' request for permanent-resident status.

The story of hundreds of persons, including the three petitioners, who live in Israel but lack citizenship here or anywhere else, was told in a series of articles published in Haaretz last September and October.

They are not permitted to work legally here, are denied medical insurance or the right to establish a family, and they may be arrested at any time. This, in spite of the fact that there is nowhere to deport them to.

There are estimated to be several hundred people in this situation in Israel, and they fall into three main categories: residents of East Jerusalem, Bedouin and residents of the former Soviet Union who were resident there when the new splinter nations were being formed, and did not receive citizenship. The three petitioners in the current case have lived in Israel illegally for many years. All have been held in detention for extended periods and were released only after it became clear that their countries of origin were unwilling to recognize them as citizens, and hence they could not be deported.

For full text of the article click here

ACRI also....

Appointed a new chairperson, Att. Dori Spivak, to head ACRI' s board. Mr. Spivak, who is currently Deputy Director of the Human Rights Clinic at Tel-Aviv University Law School, obtained his LL.M (Master of Laws) from Harvard University in 2000. He was also nominated as a visiting fellow of the Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program, and served as the President of the university’s Middle East Law Students Association. Mr. Spivak has been a member of ACRI since 1995 and has worked tirelessly for both ACRI's legal and education departments, (see "The Right to a Bed" on this newsletter for the most recent example of his valuable contribution). He has also taken an active role in the work to draft new members and raise awareness of the full spectrum of ACRI's actions.