Israeli Courts Rule in Favor of Petitions on the Citizenship Process and Lesbians

December 10, 2007

In a landmark human rights ruling at the end of last week, the Jerusalem District Court ordered Israel’s Interior Ministry to reveal details of the decision making process and criteria by which it grants citizenship and residency rights. The verdict was in response to a petition by NIF grantees ACRI, Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) of the Movement for Progressive Judaism in Israel (Reform), Hotline for Migrant Workers, Workers’ Hotline Kav LaOved and Hamoked: Center for Defense of the Individual.

These procedures affect the citizenship and residency applications of Palestinian Arabs, foreign workers and Jews who have undergone non-Orthodox conversions. Judge Yehudit Tzur ordered the Ministry to post its “complete list of rules and procedures” on its website within 30 days. Rejecting a request for a six months deferral she said, “Needy persons lacking means and foreigners who have no knowledge of the language, to these people information is like a breath of fresh air. They have the elementary right to know how their status and rights will be dealt with by the Interior Ministry and they cannot wait.”

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has reprimanded Israel’s Interior Ministry for not registering eleven-year-old Matan Brenner-Kadish as the son of lesbian couple Nicole and Ruthie Brenner-Kadish. The case goes back to 2000 when three Supreme Court judges first ordered the Interior Ministry’s Population Registry to list both women as the child’s mothers.

The State appealed to be heard by a larger panel of justices and on Sunday, nine Justices dismissed the Interior’s arguments out of hand and ordered the Population Registry to list Matan as the son of both his mothers.

These court verdicts were just two of many human rights breakthroughs by the NIF family over the past year.  Other important human rights victories have included:

Discrimination - The Supreme Court ordered the Ministry of Transport and Ramle Municipality to operate bus services in the city serving two Arab neighborhoods where 7,000 residents previously had no public transport.

Equal Allocation of Resources - The Supreme Court ordered the Ministry of Finance to add four Arab Galilee villages to the list of locations to receive compensation for the indirect economic damage caused by the second Lebanon War.    

Bedouin – The Supreme Court ordered the government to stop spraying toxic chemicals on the crops grown by Negev Bedouin in unrecognized villages.

Gay Rights – the Ministry of Housing agreed to grant subsidized mortgages to common law couples, including same-sex couples.

Women’s Rights – the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor set up a new unit to expose sexual harassment in Israel’s workplace.

Sex Trafficking - The government formulated a comprehensive new program to eliminate the trafficking of women to Israel.

Employment Rights - Israeli employers in the West Bank were given a court order to give Palestinians full employment rights.

Security Fence - the Supreme Court ordered the government to dismantle and re-route several kilometers of the Security Fence near Modi’in because it separated Palestinian farmers from their fields without enhancing Israel’s security.

The Disabled - The Knesset enacted a new law regulating the financial arrangements for the employment of the severely disabled.

Refugees – The government made a commitment not to expel the 500 refugees who reached Israel from the Darfur region of Sudan and not to prosecute businesses that employ them.