Dear friends,
Let’s talk about love. Let’s say you’ve found the person that you want to live the rest of your life with. Would you wait at least 4 and a half years, or even 7 years, to find out if the relationship has a future? Would you be prepared to go through invasive investigations, year after year, and to answer embarrassing questions in order to stay together? Would you have the patience, and ability, to obtain dozens of documents from various authorities, only to realise each time that another document is missing? Would the relationship last, or would bureaucracy split you apart?
This is what Israeli citizens who love a ‘foreigner’ have to go through. In order to arrange status for the ‘foreign’ partner, the couple has to overcome endless obstacles, regulations and bureaucratic harassment. A new report that we published together with the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants and Physicians for Human Rights takes a deep look at the policies of the Population and Immigration Authority and the Ministry of Interior. The report exposes systematic human rights violations and the severe harm caused to these couples, as well as to permanent residents who are not Jewish, asylum seekers, migrant workers, non-citizens and victims of trafficking.
Is the endless maze of bureaucracy created by the Ministry of Interior intentional? At least one thing is clear from the complicated procedures, decisions and actions that relate to each of these populations: the goal is to exclude people who are not Jewish from Israeli society and to remove them from Israel’s territory. The Population and Immigration Authority achieves this goal by being indifferent to the violations of the rights of strangers and Israeli citizens, who just want to live with the person that they love.
It’s true that every country has the authority and sovereignty to decide who can enter their borders and who has permanent status. At the same time, every country must respect human rights – including those connected to immigration and status. According to international law, states must grant asylum to refugees and respond to humanitarian distress. States must respect the right to family life and the right to obtain citizenship and protection.
However there is something even more important than these legal obligations:
A society’s humanity may be measured by its treatment of those who it perceives as ‘strangers’. This attitude towards ‘strangers’ reflects the society’s willingness to rise above their own perceived interests and to show empathy and compassion for the ‘other.’ We can learn something about ourselves, from the way that the Population and Immigration Authority treats non Jewish people, who are not citizens of Israel. It is not only the ‘strangers’ in Israel who are in a difficult situation. Our situation, as a society, is also deeply troubling.
Yours,
Sharon
Sharon Abraham-Weiss
Executive Director
Association for Civil Rights in Israel
