Interior Minister Agrees to Return Confiscated Identity Cards of Palestinian Women Citizens of Israel for Purposes of Voting in the Upcoming Elections

On 21 January 2003, Adalah filed an urgent pre-petition to the State Attorney's Office demanding that the Interior Ministry immediately return the identity cards of Palestinian women, citizens of Israel, whose blue Israeli IDs were taken from them by Ministry staff. The Interior Ministry initially claimed that these women, although citizens of Israel, are not residents of the state, as they currently live in the West Bank, and thus, are not entitled to hold Israeli ID cards.

As a result of the filing of the pre-petition, on 23 January 2003, the legal advisor to the Interior Ministry agreed that every citizen of Israel, whose identity card was taken from her pursuant to this internal order, is entitled to the return of her ID card for purposes of voting in the 28 January 2003 elections.

Adalah Staff Attorney Orna Kohn submitted the pre-petition on behalf of Ms. Rudana Amin Samoodi, a Palestinian woman citizen of Israel, who currently lives in the West Bank. Ms. Samoodi recently had her Israeli ID card confiscated by the Ministry. Ms. Kohn argued in the pre-petition that this action is illegal and violates Ms. Samoodi's basic right to vote because according to the Elections for the Knesset and Prime Minister Law (1969), in order to vote, an individual must show her identity card. Ms. Kohn also argued that the Ministry's action violates Ms. Samoodi's constitutional right to equality because the Ministry is pursuing this practice in a discriminatory manner; the Ministry has not and does not confiscate the identity cards of hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jewish citizens who currently reside abroad. As there is no absentee ballot process in Israel, many Israeli citizens return to the country, with their ID cards, to vote in the elections.