Dokument #1021366
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
The following information was provided
during an interview held in Tel Aviv on 27 May 1996 with the Legal
Counsellor of the Israel Religions Action Centre (IRAC).
Problems for New Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union
There are four IRAC branches in Jerusalem,
Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba which assist new immigrants. Each
month the IRAC receives about 350 requests from new immigrants
(Jews and Non-Jews) who require assistance in all spheres from
problems with the authorities — the Ministry of the Interior,
the Adoption Ministry, the Health Ministry, Social Security —
to other issues that they face as new immigrants. On another level
they come with problems regarding personal status such as marriage
and divorce, and problems in the workplace such as discrimination
and abuse by employers who, believing they do not know their
rights, pay them less than they are entitled to. There are also
problems in the housing field with older Israelis who, according to
new immigrants, try to take advantage because the new immigrants
who do not know the established system. These are the three main
fields where the organization actually gives legal assistance
rather than just advice. Other issues are not dealt with because
they are beyond the field of expertise of the organization or they
are problems that are not solely due to the fact that they are new
immigrants.
The problems with the Ministry of the
Interior are twofold. First is acquiring citizenship, either by
proving Jewishness or by proving that they are married to a Jew, or
the grandchild of a Jew. The Ministry of the Interior monitors the
validity of mixed marriages by not automatically granting
citizenship to the non-Jewish spouse. The Ministry assumes that all
such claims are fictitious without first checking the marriage's
validity. During the verification period the non-Jewish spouse is a
temporary resident. This status causes a lot of problems because,
as a temporary resident, they are actually tourists with a working
visa; they cannot study Hebrew or get social security. Health care
is much more expensive. The monitoring of marriages is not just
applied to new immigrants coming in with a non-Jewish partner, it
also cover non-Jewish Russians who are here as tourists and who
marry Israelis. In the last six to eight months, Israeli embassies
no longer give these couples Oleh visa. The embassies are only
prepared to give them a tourist visa and tell them to make the
final arrangements in Israel. Jewish individuals do not have
problems, they are given citizenship. A non-Jew who has been
married to a Jew for less than two years is issued a tourist visa.
The Jewish spouse receives an Oleh visa while the partner gets a
tourist visa. Most of these couples want to remain in Israel.
However, in several cases the couples admit that their marriage was
fictitious and they either go back to the former Soviet Union or
stay in Israel illegally.
The second problem is when people want
citizenship and claim that they are Jewish but the Ministry of the
Interior refuses to recognize their Jewishness. This is a very
emotional issue for many of the immigrants because they feel that
being identified as Jewish on their ID card helps in finding work
and in getting married in the future. This is the case even though
the registration as Jewish on the ID card does not necessarily
convince anyone of their Jewishness.
Nationality
Getting a person's nationality changed is a
very difficult procedure. The first step is for IRAC to send an
informal letter to the Ministry of the Interior asking for a
hearing. IRAC accompanies the client and provides any documents
that they have. If the officials at the Minstry of the Interior
cannot be persuaded on an informal level, the next step is to go to
court. IRAC goes to the District Court to get a declaratory
judgment forcing the Ministry of the Interior to change the
registration. This is a long drawn-out process at the best of
times. Sometimes the organization later finds out that the new
immigrant has forged documents or that his or her claims are not
completely true.
Civil rights and New Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union
Many of the problems with civil rights have
occurred because there are numerous immigrants or numerous Russians
who have come into the country on forged documentation which has
created suspicion at the Ministry of the Interior. It is a fact of
the current wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union that
there have been hundreds of cases of people immigrating to Israel
with forged documents. However, it is still difficult for those who
immigrate to Israel with valid documents to have their rights to
citizenship postponed for a year. There is no question that their
civil rights are affected. They are not eligible for social
security and their health benefits and health funds are much more
expensive than those of a citizen who gets reduced rates. In the
workplace their rights are not affected in that worker protection
laws apply equally to residents, citizens and non-citizens. But it
is harder, obviously, to enforce these laws in favour of someone
who is not a citizen. And obviously knowing Hebrew makes a huge
impact on civil rights in Israel, in the way you can express
yourself and the way that you are treated by people.
In terms being registered as a Jew, it is
more of an emotional issue than a civil right. Theoretically, one
cannot be discriminated against in Israel because of race or creed.
Therefore, whether one is recognized as Jewish or Russian on an ID
card should make no difference. In cases that IRAC has come across
where a person was dismissed from work or from a work interview
because the employer was convinced the person was not Jewish, the
employer has been forced to reconsider because it is against the
law to discriminate on these grounds.
Mixed Couples and Discrimination
The main problem of mixed couples in Israel
is related to their personal status, mainly that they cannot get
married in Israel. If they are already a couple with children and
they have been married for ten years, then there are no problems as
far as the Ministry of the Interior is concerned. The problem
arises when the couple has been married for under a year or for
under two years and they do not have children. That is when the
Ministry of the Interior investigates on the validity of the
marriage. You cannot make a broad statement that all mixed couples
are discriminated against on arriving into Israel. It is only those
who have been married within the last one or two years, and the
others where one partner comes to Israel first and the other
partner does not come until two or three years later. That also
often creates problems because they were not living together and
were basically separated during that time.
Teudat Zehut and Access to Services
The Teudat Zehut is part of the Israeli
mentality. Generally, people do not have to show it but they have
to write down the ID number. People have to show it to open a bank
account and it is possible you would have to show it to rent an
apartment, possibly because they want to check the person's
identity. The first time people go to a medical centre they must
show their ID card because the centre has to open a medical file
and have the personal information necessary for the National Health
Insurance plan. Once the personal details are in the file the
medical centres provide the patients with one of their own cards
and the ID card is not required anymore. Employers are entitled to
ask for people's Teudat Zehut.
There has been only one complaint out of
the thousands of cases that have passed through IRAC offices of an
individual who went to the authorities, was forced to show her
Teudat Zehut and was refused services on the basis that she was not
Jewish. In that case IRAC made representation on behalf of the
woman to the head of the Department in question and the woman was
able to received the services she was entitled to. It is very hard
to believe that everybody else has kept silent because this is a
severe breach of all basic rights. If this was a systematic
behaviour on the part of the authorities, it would have been
reported in the press and IRAC would have had several cases. This
is not the case.
Improvements of the Services Offered to New Immigrants
The issue of marriage and divorce is very
high on the agenda of IRAC and among civil rights activists in
Israel. There are several human and civil rights organizations in
Israel that have created a coalition working to change the law of
marriage. Under the Labour government the Minister of Religious
Affairs has made significant changes for marriage and divorce, for
mixed couples in particular. The fact that Israel now has opened
cemeteries for mixed burial is attributable to the situation
created by the new immigrants.
Immigration Quotas?
The Olim have never indicated to IRAC that
there are quotas at the Israeli embassies in the former Soviet
Union.
New Immigrant Children and Schools
The problems with recently immigrated
children in Israeli schools have been minimal. There have been a
few cases of school yard fighting in Jerusalem and in Bersheeba but
it has been very minimal. When they occur, these problems are dealt
with on a local level by the social workers and it does not result
in legal procedings.
Christians and Public Religious Signs
IRAC has never received complaints related
to discrimination or harassment for wearing a Christian religious
sign such as a cross.
Integration of New Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union
Many Olim immigrate to Israel assuming that
they will have access to a very wide scope of rights that were not
available to them in the former Soviet Union, or even in several
western democracies. For example, whey new immigrants do not get a
housing allowance, or when they do not get immediate recognition or
when they do not fit into a certain qualification or criteria for
different government bodies they feel it is systematic
discrimination against them. There have been a number of new
immigrants who have come and said "You are a democracy, we should
have these rights." And it is very difficult to say that these are
not really basic civil rights. The problem here is one of
perception.
There is still work to be done. The
situation is not perfect. There are cases of doctors who have
worked in their profession for 13 or 14 years in Russia and they
are not accepted as doctors here in Israel because of very strict
requirements as to who can practise in the medical, pharmaceutical
or nursing profession. It is a question of degree whether it is a
breach of a civil right or not. On the one hand, you have a basic
civil right to be able to work in your profession, on the other
hand the country has to look after its own interests in terms of
the basic level at which it is prepared to let people work.
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and New Immigrants Access to Services
The services are limited, there is no
question. The mandate is limited because of funding. The
Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), has very strict
criteria as to what is a breach of civil rights and not all civil
rights NGOs have the financial ability to provide free legal
assistance. The problem is that many of these new immigrants need
or want somebody to pay for legal representation and there are very
few NGOs who are able to do that. There is no basis for new
immigrants saying that they were not given assistance because they
are non-Jews. The reason they would not get assistance is because
the NGOs felt they did not fit into their general criteria. There
are no NGOs which determine whether a person is eligible for their
service by what is on their ID card.
Civil rights organizations in Israel do not
require the Teudat Zehut to provide services. The ID card is looked
at for the ID number because it is often needed when making
requests to government authorities. There are a lot of NGOs that
provide free legal advice, meaning that clients meet with a lawyer
that is available on a pro-bono basis and who will provide free
legal advise, not free legal representation in court. There are a
lot of organizations as well as local councils who provide free
legal advise.
Other issues
Another issue is that of those whom the
state does not recognize as Jewish, and cannot prove their
Jewishness because they do not have documents. In these cases, they
are considered as non-Jews because, although they claim to be Jews,
they cannot prove it. On their Teudat Zehut they will have a
mixture of "unknown" or "blank", or three dotted lines. There is
also on some Teudat Zehut the inscription "not registered".
Generally, if there is a case of someone who claims they are Jewish
and cannot prove it, we can persuade the Ministry of the Interior
to write "non-registered" or leave it blank.
Generally new immigrants facing this type
of problem need to consult with organizations that would provide
assistance such as writing to the legal advisor of the Ministry of
the Interior. Then again, in the last year the Ministry of the
Interior has been more prepared to write "not registered", instead
of "Russian".
Reference
Legal Counsellor, Israel Religious
Action Centre (IRAC), Jerusalem. 27 May 1996. Interview.