| Do Unregistered Palestinian Children in Jerusalem Enjoy the Right to Life? The Israeli Ministry of the Interior has many tools at its disposal to implement the policy of reducing the number of Palestinian residents in Jerusalem. It is not only the case that Palestinian Jerusalemites are liable to lose their residency rights if they travel abroad or have a second home in another part of the West Bank - there are in fact numerous Palestinian Jerusalemites whose residency rights have never been recognized. Since 1982, hospitals in Jerusalem have been under instructions from the Interior Ministry to register data concerning Palestinian children born to non-Jerusalem resident fathers without identification number, even if the child’s mother is an East Jerusalem resident. Such an identification number, which used to be automatically given to children of Jerusalem resident mothers, facilitates registration of the child as a Jerusalem resident. Without it, registration of such children becomes a long, cumberstone process.
Thus, since 1982, a whole set of children, born and raised and living in Jerusalem, has grown up, who are not officially Jerusalem residents. When the first of these children reaches the age of 16, they will have to apply for personal Identity Cards and will probably be unceremoniously expelled from Jerusalem by the Israeli authorities and forced to take up residence in other parts of the West Bank. However, their problems begin long before the fateful moment. Is an unregistered child entitled to go to a state school in Jerusalem? Yes, the Israeli authorities were forced to admit in 1994, after the issue was brought to their attention by local human rights organizations.
Another, even more poignant issue is the right of the unregistered children to medical treatment, which would seem an even more basic right than that to an education. The Association of Israeli and Palestinian Physicians for Human Rights (AIPPHR) has recently become concerned about a number of cases which have come to its attention of such unregistered children being denied free medical treatment in Jerusalem hospitals because they lack the medical insurance automatically provided under law to all Jerusalem residents. The coalition of Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations which works around residency rights issues has decided, thanks to the initiative of the AIPPHR to raise the right to medical treatment of unregistered children in all appropriate forums, including the Israeli High Court, if need be. |
