On Wednesday, 6 October 1999, the Jerusalem Centre for Social & Economic Rights (JCSER) and the Citizens’ Rights Centre (CRC) submitted a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court against the Israeli Ministry of the Interior in East Jerusalem. The petitioners requested the Interior Ministry to improve its services provided to Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem in line with their needs based on the principles of equality and respect for human rights. The petition demands equal rights for all applicants and equal treatment of all applications whether submitted by Jewish or Palestinian Jerusalemites. Therefore, important service improvements should be made at the Ministry’s Office in East Jerusalem.

The petition described the policy and procedures adopted by the Interior Ministry in dealing with Palestinian citizens in East Jerusalem. This policy reflects a set of discriminatory and inhuman measures in the manner of administrating and providing services to Palestinian citizens. Palestinians have long complained about the inhuman and degrading conditions to which they have been exposed in their contacts with the Interior Ministry. These conditions contradict existing laws in the Holy Land and constitute grave violations of internationally acknowledged laws and conventions pertaining to the principles of equality and human rights.

The 200-page petition was based on tens of affidavits provided by Palestinian citizens and on the difficult recurrent conditions set by the Interior Ministry. The petition also relied on facts and information collected by field researchers, which dealt with the maltreatment and arbitrary procedures adopted by the Interior Ministry against Palestinian Jerusalemites. The situation in East Jerusalem is completely different from that in West Jerusalem. The quality of services provided to Israelis in West Jerusalem is much better than those provided to Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

A 6-month field study was conducted concerning the long hours Palestinian Jerusalemites are forced to stand in line before being able to enter the Interior Ministry’s Office in East Jerusalem. Palestinians need to refer to the Interior Ministry to provide documents and papers to prove their citizenship and residency rights in Jerusalem, to register children on their ID cards or to inquire about reasons why an ID card has been confiscated.

The petition submitted to the Israeli Supreme Court explained that Palestinian citizens are frequently asked to report to the Interior Ministry’s Office in East Jerusalem. At the Interior Ministry in West Jerusalem, Israelis are treated with dignity and humanity, whereas Palestinians, on the other hand, are exposed to a series of arbitrary and bureaucratic procedures merely because they are not Israelis.

The quality of services provided to Israelis in West Jerusalem is much better than those provided to Palestinians in East Jerusalem. People with Israeli citizenship receive services through the post office and are not requested to provide tens of documents to prove their residency or citizenship rights and usually hold passports valid for long periods of time. Palestinians, on the other hand, are mistreated, degraded, discriminated and are requested to provide innumerable documents to prove residency and citizenship rights in Jerusalem. This places a heavy burden on some applicants and sometimes leads to psychological and physical fatigue. The repeated visits to the Interior Ministry’s Office are usually fruitless and a waste of time.

In many cases, Palestinian citizens are forced to stand long hours in line, sometimes even a night before to be able to guarantee access to the Interior Ministry’s Office. In summer, the burning sun blazes on those queuing and in winter there is a biting chill. In many cases, the guard declares the termination of the working day before all people could enter. They are forced to go home, without accomplishing anything.

The petition submitted also referred to the severe suffering inflicted on Palestinian Jerusalemites, as a result of merciless and degrading conditions. The petition highlighted the fact that the Interior Ministry does not provide Palestinians with accurate instructions or information. Some have found themselves in situations where they had no idea about certain issues such as fees, type of documents to be enclosed with an application, or working hours. The Interior Ministry’s Office in East Jerusalem is open until 12:00 midday, while the West Jerusalem branch remains open until the afternoon.

The petition also highlighted the unrealistic requests with which Palestinians are usually challenged. Jerusalemites must prove their ‘centre of life’ in the city. That is to say Palestinians are asked to provide documents, which are not requested from Israelis to prove that they live within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem. Moreover, responses to requests, if available, are usually ambiguous, short and oral with the aim of deceiving Palestinians and distorting the law. The petition also discussed the stacks of accumulated, longstanding files waiting to be processed, a number of which need very little time to be processed due to their triviality, such as a change of address, birth and death registration.

Furthermore, the petition referred to the use of the Hebrew language as the only official language used by the Interior Ministry on application forms, documents and letters issued. The insistence of the Interior Ministry to use Hebrew totally ignores the status of the Arabic language, Palestinians’ mother tongue. The disregard of the Arabic language creates problems for Palestinians who do not know the Hebrew language. It also contradicts international laws and conventions, which call for the use of the native language of indigenous people.

Palestinian citizens hope that an adequate solution to the queuing problem at the Interior Ministry’s Office in East Jerusalem will be found. Israelis in West Jerusalem do not have to queue a night before or come early in the morning in order to gain access to the Interior Ministry’s Office.

In its hearing session held on 12 June 2000, the Israeli Supreme Court postponed its decision concerning the petition submitted by JCSER and CRC against the Interior Ministry for three months. The petitioners requested the Interior Ministry to improve the quality of services provided to Palestinian Jerusalemites equal to those provided to Israelis in West Jerusalem based on the principles of equality and respect for human rights.

The Interior Ministry responded that there had been some improvements concerning humanitarian cases, such as old, pregnant women and children. It also spoke about the obstacles it faced in solving this problem and promised to solve it in a year time by making some improvements in the applications submitted by Palestinian citizens.

Court judges recommended the Interior Ministry to improve conditions and quality of services provided to Palestinian citizens and to find a proper solution to the problem of the long hours Palestinians have to endure under severe weather conditions. The Israeli Interior Minister paid a visit to the Interior Ministry’s Office in East Jerusalem and witnessed by himself the long queues and resulting problems.

Some Palestinians have come to realize that there is an organized systematic policy adopted by the Interior Ministry to empty the city of its original inhabitants and to change the demographic composition of the Holy City before final status negotiations begin between the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Israel.

In its hearing session held on 24 September 2000, the jury criticized the Interior Ministry for not improving the quality of services provided to Palestinian citizens in East Jerusalem within the three-month period allocated.

The petition forced the Interior Ministry Undersecretary to meet with the two lawyers (JCSER & CRC) in order to reach an agreement under the current circumstances. A number of agreements were made between JCSER/CRC and the Interior Ministry. The agreements included:

• To apply for a permit at the Jerusalem Municipality to build shadow facilities outside its office in East Jerusalem within a 45-day period;
• To appoint a new information employee responsible for dealing with urgent matters, replying to applicants’ inquiries and receiving documents submitted by Palestinians;
• To provide application forms to people outside the building through its security guard to save endless queuing;
• To check whether a Palestinian applicant previously submitted an application form and provided documents, saving submission twice;
• To publish the following in the local newspapers within 60 days:
  1. To give priority to pregnant women and those suffering from health problems and physical disabilities;
  2. To provide the guard with application forms at 8:00a.m. each morning to be distributed to Palestinian citizens;
  3. To send application forms by mail as adopted by the rest of the Interior Ministry departments;
  4. Palestinian Jerusalemites have the right not to provide documents previously submitted;
  5. To provide services and receive application forms by mail as adopted by other departments;
  6. To print application forms in Arabic and to start using them in East Jerusalem within 45 days;
  7. To submit a list of documents that Palestinians must attach with an application form.

• The appointment of three new employees in addition to the four employees employed two months ago;
• The preparation for the new building for the Interior Ministry.

• The establishment of a computer system with regard to verifying documents electronically previously submitted by applicants;
• To increase the days in which services are provided by telephone (currently two days a week);
• To open the Interior Ministry’s Office in the afternoon.