Information on the assistance available to immigrant children [ISR21650.E]

The following interview was conducted with the Director of the Centre for Research, Policy and Public Education Division of the National Council for the Child. The interview was held on 24 April 1995 in Jerusalem.

The National Council for the Child (NCC) is a non-governmental organization founded in 1975. The NCC deals with all the issues that concern children's rights and well-being in Israel. The NCC is mainly active in the following projects:

1) The Centre for the Child and the Law;

2) The Research and Public Education Centre;

3) The Ombudsman for Children and Youth.(1)

The Ombudsman for Children and Youth deals with any violations of children's rights in Israel. It is comprised of four sections: native-born Israeli children, Arab-Israeli children, Ethiopian immigrant children and former Soviet immigrant children. The Ombudsman receives around 5,000 complaints from children annually.

Clients

The NCC provides services to children in need of assistance, whether Jewish, non-Jewish, Arab, Christian or foreigner. The NCC does not require to see a person's Teudat Zehut before providing services. The Teudat Zehut will be required only when administrative procedures by the government are necessary.

The NCC was involved with the case of a non-citizen Christian child from abroad who came to Israel with his/her family to meet a specialist at Hadassah Hospital. As a non-citizen, the child was not covered by Israeli Health Insurance. The parents had no money to cover the US $20,000 expense for the operation. The NCC, in collaboration with Christian organizations, raised funds to pay the medical costs.

The NCC provides assistance to immigrant children from the former Soviet Union who experience problems with their integration into the country. The NCC does not replace the services immigrant children receive, rather it makes sure that the institutions fulfil their obligations with regard to the rights of the children.

In 1994, the NCC handled approximately 1500 cases of Soviet immigrant children. This represents around 35 per cent of the NCC caseload. The total Soviet immigrant population represents 10 per cent of the Israeli population. This high rate of Soviet immigrant children is due to integration problems.

The complaints from immigrant children from the former Soviet Union cover a wide range of issues such as educational frameworks, school enrolment, child labour, problems related to divorced families, and problems of status for children born of parents one of whom was non-Jewish.

Cases of children born of non-Jewish parents are not numerous. Most of them involve cases where only one spouse (usually a woman) immigrated to Israel without the other spouse. If the spouse who came to Israel is Jewish, arrangements for the status of the children can be made. When the spouse who comes to Israel with the children is non-Jewish, and has come without the permission of the Jewish spouse, problems of status occur. Children from these families cannot obtain Israeli citizenship without the written permission of the Jewish spouse. Often, these single parents are divorced and contacts between the spouses have been severed for a long time. It is very difficult to find the other spouse in the former Soviet Union to obtain the written permission. Without Israeli citizenship status the children are not entitled to services in Israel such as health insurance, school enrolment, etc.

There are other cases of families (whether Jewish or mixed Jewish/non-Jewish couples) who come to Israel as tourists and remain in the country after their tourist visa has expired. With their visa expiration the family becomes illegal residents. As such the children cannot have access to services. The NCC takes up these cases with the Ministry of the Interior and tries to obtain either citizenship or permanent resident status in Israel. They are usually successful in pursuing this avenue. Permanent resident status provides all the rights of citizenship except for voting and, therefore, allows the children to receive appropriate care from the government institutions.

Cases the NCC cannot resolve are those of non-Jewish families where neither of the parents is Jewish, who come to Israel as tourists and remain in the country after their visa expires. In Israel there are almost no cases of expulsion. If they claim some remote connection to Jewish identity, they are allowed to remain in the country. However, their status often remains problematic. This is the NCC's main complaint with the government if it lets people in, it should give them proper status. If the government does not want to let them in, it should stop them before they are inside the country. There are too many agencies handling immigration cases of people from the former Soviet Union who let people with very remote connections to Judaism come to Israel.

Under Israeli law, people are obligated to report cases of child abuse or suspicion of child abuse. An ordinary person who fails to report such cases can be sentenced up to three months in jail; a professional for up to six months. This law was passed five years ago.(2)

The Israeli Police are obliged to respond to all calls for assistance. According to the source's assessment, a police officer who refuses to provide services to a person or a child on the basis that the request is being made by a non-Jew, would be reflective of the police officer's behaviour rather than the entire police. The source is not aware of cases where police officers refused to provide services to children or their parents on such a basis.

Like other police forces around the world, the Israeli police do not enjoy being criticized. However, when the NCC has intervened, the Israeli police have performed their duty.

Advertisement

The NCC advertises its services in the Russian press and publishes booklets in Russian. Booklets produced for immigrants in the professions are written in Hebrew only because it is very unlikely that a professional would not speak Hebrew. Booklets produced for immigrants in general would be written in Russian. The NCC also publishes a poster in Hebrew, Russian and Arabic on the issue of child abuse and the obligation to report instances of child abuse. 20,000 copies of this poster were distributed everywhere in the country. The NCC publicity campaign seems to be effective since the number of complaints is growing.

Integration of Immigrant Children

According to Asher's assessment, although it is not perfect, the integration of Soviet immigrant children into Israeli society is improving. The indicators show that the rate of poverty among Soviet immigrant children has dropped from 60 to 30 per cent. After three years of data showing a higher percentage than that of native Israeli youth, the percentage rate of Soviet immigrant juvenile offenders has decreased to the rate of native Israeli youth. The rate of success in pre-school exams is higher among Soviet immigrant pupils than for native Israeli children.

The main problems experienced by Soviet immigrant children are social and economic. Socially, new Soviet immigrants are numerous enough to live in neighbourhoods where they speak Russians with their Russian neighbours. This situation delays their integration into Israeli society. Economically, the challenge is to obtain better employment and salary. Only time and integration will provide long-term solutions to these problems.

Asher emphasized that although the situation of Soviet immigrant children is improving, there are still serious problems to be dealt with. Many people are not doing their best to solve these problems. The NCC does not question the law, the rules or the social norms in Israel. The NCC encounters problems with the behaviour of specific individuals whether a social worker, a police officer, a government official, etc.

NOTES

(1) For additional information on these projects and on the National Council for the Child, please consult the attached documents.

(2) A copy of this law is available upon request to the DIRB in Ottawa. The text is in Hebrew.

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