In ARTICLE 74 we have so far dealt only with the denial of residence rights to the inhabitants of the Occupied Territories and their families. At the initiative of the Palestinian feminist organization “Al Fanar” another aspect of this problem has been revealed, this time concerning Palestinian citizens of Israel. 
According to a study by the Alternative Information Center’s project in support of Family Reunification, dozens of Palestinians who are Israeli citizens cannot acquire permanent resident status for their non-Israeli spouses. Unlike for Jewish citizens, Israeli law does not guarantee resident status to a husband or wife of an Arab Israeli citizen. The law states that “the Minister of the Interior is entitled to grant residency ...” - and he has been exercising this right very sparingly, while exerting various types of pressure on those applying for family reunification. 
In a study compelled and published by the AIC, we presented four cases in which the right of residency was denied to spouses of Palestinian citizens of Israel. In one case, a citizen’s wife was even deported. These cases are only a small sample of what is - according to our evaluations - a widespread phenomenon involving dozens of new cases each year. 
A detailed letter presenting the issue to the Minister of Interior has remained unanswered, but the media coverage given to the study has already led to some positive results: 

- Various Members of Knesset, among them the Chairman of the Knesset Committee on Law and Constitution, MK Dedi Tzuker, decided to deal with the issue on the legislative level. 

- One of the cases presented in the AIC study - which also served as the background to a report broadcast on the TV news - was resolved thanks to a quick initiative by the Ministry of Interior. 

- Additional victims of the discriminatory policy in residency granting have started to turn for help to the Israeli-Palestinian Project for Family Reunification, a fact which enables us to get a more comprehensive picture of the problem, and to deal with it more efficiently both on the legal level and in our dealings with the officials on the Ministry of the Interior. 

Progress made on both levels will be reported in the next issue of ARTICLE 74.