Gisha petitions High Court for reinstatement of Gaza resident’s Israeli citizenship
On October 22, 2017, Gisha filed a petition with the High Court of Justice (Hebrew), on behalf of a Gaza resident whose application for her Israeli citizenship to be reinstated had been rejected by the Ministry of Interior.
The Ministry of Interior revoked the petitioner’s citizenship in 1990, when she moved to Gaza with her Palestinian husband. When she entered the Strip, the Israeli Civil Administration authority had the petitioner sign a waiver of Israeli citizenship (Hebrew) in Hebrew using her fingerprint, as she could not read or write. The petitioner did not know what the document meant or understand what she was signing. In fact, she only found out her citizenship had been revoked recently, by chance, when the Ministry of Interior denied her application for an Israeli passport. When the petitioner submitted a Freedom of Information application to receive all the documents in her population registry file, the documents related to the revocation of her citizenship were not disclosed to her.
The revocation of the petitioner’s citizenship in 1990 was consistent with the Ministry of Interior’s policy at the time with respect to Palestinian women with Israeli citizenship who sought to move to the occupied Palestinian territory to live with their husbands. The policy, which was never formalized or officially published, as required by law, was discussed by the High Court in the context of a petition filed in 1998. Following that case, the Ministry of Interior formulated a protocol (Hebrew) for the Israeli citizenship of women affected by this policy to be reinstated, subject to security clearance. Though the petition from 1998 related to women who had divorced their husbands and wished to move back to Israel, the protocol does not specify any conditions for reinstating women’s citizenship, other than intent to permanently reside in Israel and security clearance.
On April 3, 2017, Gisha’s petitioner had filed an application under the protocol to have her Israeli citizenship reinstated. It was rejected (Hebrew) on July 16, 2017 by the Ministry of Interior. The ministry claimed that the fact that the petitioner was still married to her spouse, a resident of Gaza, and that she had not included her young daughter in the application, called into question her intent to permanently reside in Israel. The petitioner appealed the refusal, but her appeal was rejected (Hebrew), without a pertinent response to the arguments it presented. On October 22, 2017, Gisha filed an administrative petition against the Ministry of Interior.
In the petition, Gisha argued that the Ministry of Interior’s decision must be rescinded, and the petitioner’s Israeli citizenship reinstated, as she met the criteria specified in the protocol, which only requires a declaration of intent to reside permanently in Israel. The protocol does not include a requirement for separation from the spouse, or submission of an application for minor children. The petition argued that the Ministry of Interior decision was based on irrelevant information and that it was unreasonable and disproportionate – even if the Ministry of Interior doubts the petitioner’s intention of living in Israel, it should give her the chance to remove this doubt by granting her temporary residency and monitoring her living arrangements going forward.
The court ordered the Ministry of Interior to file its response by December 21, 2017.
