Following Adalah's Petition: Regional Labor Court Obliges National Insurance Institute to Restore All Social Benefits to Palestinian Woman Citizen of Israel After her Marriage to a Palestinian Resident of Gaza

The Regional Labor Court in Beer el-Sabe (Beer Sheva) issued a decision on 1 August 2005, in which it accepted in full an appeal filed by Adalah obliging the National Insurance Institute (NII) to restore all of the social rights to a Palestinian woman citizen of Israel and her children after she was stripped of them by the NII following her marriage to a Palestinian resident of the Gaza Strip. At Adalah's request, the Court also obliged the NII to pay the various benefits retroactively, which were wrongfully withheld by the NII.

Adalah Attorney Orna Kohn submitted the appeal to the Regional Labor Court in Beer el-Sabe in January 2004, on behalf of a Palestinian woman citizen of Israel and her young children, demanding that the NII retract its decision to cancel their status in Israel, of which it divested them in an arbitrary manner. As a result, the woman and her children lost all their social rights, to which they are entitled under the National Insurance Law –1995, including childbirth support, maternity leave, child benefits, income support benefits, and health insurance rights under the National Health Insurance Law – 1994.

Adalah argued in the appeal that the NII took its decision after obtaining information that the woman citizen in question had married a resident of the Gaza Strip. The decision relied on the report of an NII investigator, which was full of errors and inaccurate information, but on the basis of which it was decided that the woman had ceased living in Israel and relocated to live in Gaza since the time of her marriage. In fact, she left Israel to Gaza just once for a few hours before her wedding.

Adalah contended that the NII took its decision without due process, since it did not grant the woman the right to be heard, or give her an opportunity to appeal the decision within the NII, and ignored the clear facts of the case, which demonstrated that the woman and her children were living in Israel.

Adalah further argued that, as the woman and her children are citizens of Israel, born in Israel and living here, there can be no doubt that they are residents of Israel for the purposes of both the National Insurance Law and the National Health Insurance Law. Therefore, the NII's decision was wrong, arbitrary, in contradiction of the principle of the rule of law, and in violation fundamental and constitutional rights, including the rights to dignity, equality and due process.

The Regional Labor Court judge refuted all of the claims made by the NII, criticizing what it called its “rushed decision”:

“In conclusion, we have found that the decision of the claimant [the NII] that the plaintiff is not a resident of Israel was rushed, groundless, lacking a reliable and verified factual basis, and, even three years after it was made, that no further evidence to support it was found. Therefore, the appeal is accepted.”

N.I. 1246/2004, Unnamed Petitioners v. National Insurance Institute (appeal accepted).