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Factual statement

The National Insurance Institute (NII) is charged with executing the National Insurance Law and other laws with a similar objective like the State Health Insurance Law. These laws form the Israeli social insurance system, which extends a range of benefits to both citizens and residents. Benefits include payments to the elderly, the widowed, the unemployed, the permanently disabled, to children, to mothers for birth and maternity, and to injured workers. The system also provides income supplements and maintenance to those with low and no income. The entitlement to benefits from the NII depends on residency in Israel, including Jerusalem. However, the practices and policies in the provision of social insurance make a clear distinction between Israeli citizens and Palestinian residents.

The NII is authorised by law to conduct investigations to verify that the individual claiming an allowance lives in Israel and meets the conditions. It is part of NII policy to suspect every Palestinian Jerusalemite to actually live outside the Municipality boundaries and therefore conducts an investigation for every Palestinian application. Jewish residents are not subjected to the same treatment, as their residency rights are not questioned.

NII investigations in East Jerusalem breach the principles of proper administration and grossly violate the rights of the residents. Two examples: (i) An investigation of a claim can take several months and takes place every time a Palestinian Jerusalemite approaches the NII. During the investigation period, the claimant does not receive allowances or health insurance. Accordingly, residents of East Jerusalem awaiting the results suffer financially. (ii) Investigations and their reports are in Hebrew. Palestinian Jerusalemites are forced to sign these documents without being able to understand the contents.

In 1995, the NII agreed with the Interior Ministry to forward to the Population Administration of the Interior Ministry its findings on persons who have settled outside Israel. In this way, the NII became part of the “centre of life” policy. However, the two institutions use different definitions of “residents of Israel”. For the Interior Ministry a resident is a person who has been granted the legal right to stay in Israel, while the NII requires that a person actually lives in Israel, including Jerusalem, and holds the requisite residency status. Because of the “centre of life” policy and housing problems in the city, many Palestinian Jerusalemites have been forced to live outside the city borders. However, they continue to pay to the National Insurance system through payroll deductions at their Jerusalem workplace, but cannot claim benefits.

In February 1998, the NII stopped paying a variety of benefits to a number of Palestinian Jerusalemites. In April 1999, the policy was varied and the NII agreed to grant medical benefits to Palestinians who returned to Jerusalem after living outside the municipal boundaries. However, the receipt of other benefits such as child allowances would only be paid after a waiting period of one year and an approved residency check. In August 1999, another change in the policy took place: Palestinians living on the ‘periphery’ of Jerusalem could immediately claim benefits from the NII. These seem to be positive steps in the areas of social insurance, but short of providing full entitlement to Palestinians and, at least in application, there continues to be discrimination between Palestinians and the Jewish population of Jerusalem. The NII has not publicly announced its new policy and no information has been supplied by the NII to applicants or their legal advisors. It remains unclear which of the surrounding areas of Jerusalem the authorities view as Jerusalem’s ‘periphery’. Cases suggest that Dahia Al Baried in the north of the city is included, while Abu Dis in the East, though also located directly on the municipality boundary, is not.

Services
Palestinian Jerusalemites have for long complained about the conditions to which they are exposed when applying for services at the office of the National Insurance Institute. The conditions contradict existing Israeli laws and strongly contravene with the internationally acknowledged standards pertaining to the respect of economic and social rights and the principles of equality and impartiality.

The Palestinian residents are exposed to mistreatment and arbitrary procedures of the staff of the office. They are repeatedly and exaggeratedly asked to report in comparison with the requests made by staff to Israelis in West Jerusalem.



In many cases, people have had to queue up from the preceding night. In addition to the long hours of queuing, people have complained about the stinging summer sun or the biting cold winter wind. In many cases, when their turn comes, the guard declares the termination of the working hours and people are forced to go home again without having gained access to the office. Because of misleading or absent information and unclear procedures, Palestinians have often lacked information on required fees, the type of documents they should enclose with their application or the working hours. Furthermore, Hebrew is the only language used most of the time, although Arabic is the second official language in Israel. Many Palestinians do not understand Hebrew.

Recent developments

According to Israeli law, all Israeli residents have the right to social security and are entitled to social benefits and allowances. However, because of adopted practices these rights are violated in various cases when it concerns Palestinian residents. These practices are also in contradiction with articles of the UDHT (Universal Decalration of Human Rights), for example art. 25, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 11 & 12), which state the right to an adequate standard of living, including the right to social services, and security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyong his or her control, and the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable health standards.


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