St. Yves Obtains Family Unification for a Jerusalemite Family

• Date: 2016-07-25

The Society of St. Yves – Catholic Center for Human Rights obtained a family unification permit for the N.A, a Palestinian man from the West Bank married to a Jerusalemite woman after a long legal battle; the couple has been married for more than 10 years and they are a family of 6 members. The family has been deprived of any kind of stability due to the constant denial of their family unification application by the Israeli Ministry of Interior.

N.A approached St. Yves for legal assistance after the Israeli Ministry of Interior rejected their previous applications for alleged “security” reasons, and despite the fact they proved that the “center of life” condition applies to them, meaning that their center of life is in Jerusalem.

St. Yves submitted an application supported with all necessary documents to the Ministry of Interior, and a few months later St. Yves received a negative response due to “security” reasons once again. Following this rejection, St. Yves filed an appeal to the court; and requested that the allegations upon which the Ministry of Interior is denying the application be verified. After numerous sessions, N.A was finally granted a yearly permit that needs to be renewed each year. 

It is noteworthy that the “security” criteria upon which Israeli authorities rely to deny Palestinians their basic rights, including the right to family unification, remains a vast, ambiguous and undefined criteria. Israeli authorities apply the “security” measure not only to the Palestinian applicants to family unification, but also to their direct relatives and distant families, meaning a Palestinian applicant to family unification can have his application denied because a relative, whether direct or distant, is banned due to “security” reasons.