A 10-year legal battle to grant permits to a Palestinian family from Jerusalem finally reached its end.
On 9 December 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that a couple and their two children, residing in Jabal Mukaber, should be granted permits to reside in Jerusalem in accordance with a Prime Minister’s decision from 2007.
The appellant was born in 1955 in Al Sawahre, a Bedouin village in East Jerusalem, where the Western portion of the village is governed by Israeli law. The appellant’s family first lived in caves and tents in the village, located on the seam line between East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and then moved to a house. The appellant’s father registered in the population registry in the West Bank as a resident of the West Bank when the appellant was a child, and the appellant was registered automatically. Beginning in the early 1970s, the family home was located in Jerusalem.
In 1976, the appellant married his first wife, a Jordanian citizen, and built a house next to his father’s house. In 1995, the couple separated, and the appellant married his current wife and had two children from her, who, like their parents, were registered as West Bank residents. In 2003, the appellant officially divorced from his first wife, who continued to live in an apartment in the family home.
The appellant’s current wife was born in 1958, raised in Jabal Mukaber and lived there except for a brief period in which her family did not live in their home during the war in 1967. She too was registered in the West Bank population registry. From 1977-1997, she worked in the hospital of the Red Cross in East Jerusalem, first as a nurse’s assistant and then as a nurse. From 1977 until she married the appellant, she lived in the dormitories of the hospital.
Throughout the years, the family submitted multiple applications to legalize their status in Jerusalem, all of which were denied. In 2008, they submitted an application to legalize their status in accordance with Prime Minister’s Decision 2492 (“Agreement 87”). The decision addressed the following group of people: residents of the West Bank living illegally in East Jerusalem continuously since 1987, and for whom the building of the security fence in Jerusalem greatly harmed their everyday life and prevented them from maintaining ties with the West Bank. The order gave the Minister of Interior the authority to approve their continued residence in East Jerusalem with temporary military permits, based on their personal circumstances and applied to minor children as well.
The family’s application was denied in 2013. The Ministry of Interior claimed that the father was married to two wives in violation of the laws of Israel and that his divorce was in name only. It claimed that the mother failed to prove continuous residence in East Jerusalem and lived with her parents outside of the city. The children’s applications were also denied.
The couple appealed to the Court of Administrative Appeals and lost. They then appealed to the Supreme Court, and the case stood pending for three years. After a court hearing on the case and comments made by the justices, the Ministry of Interior decided to review its decision regarding the mother and approved her application together with her children.
The mother and children were issued permits geographically restricted to their area of residence. Our office challenged the restriction, and the Ministry of Interior notified the court that after extensive deliberations, it was decided to unite all geographic areas, such that permit holders would be allowed to travel throughout East Jerusalem.
The father remained without a permit until the court issued its decision in his favor. The Court accepted all of our arguments and evidence that the appellant was no longer married to his first wife and that she maintained an independent household. The Court added that the father’s application is based on his ties to Jerusalem and not on his marital ties and therefore, the issue of bigamy cannot be a deciding factor in the case.
After a prolonged legal battle, all members of the family ultimately received permits to reside legally in Jerusalem.
The court decision in Hebrew can be found at: