I promised a few posts back to write about a good friend of mine who has had trouble getting the most basic of services as a non-Jew living in Israel.
Worse than that she was born here so is, at least in my opinion, more Israeli than I am.
My friend, lets call her Kay, is Armenian. She has grown up her whole life in Jerusalem's Old City Armenian quarter. For the last 7 years she has been working in my building as a network assistant/systems operator. She is 25 years old and to my knowledge poses no threat to Israel or its' citizens.
About 1 year ago Kay decided she was old enough to move out of home. I went apartment hunting with her and was very glad when she decided to move into an area not far from where I live.
I had just got married and so wanted to go to Misrad Hapnim (the interior ministry) to register my new married name on my identity card and passport. Kay decided to come with me because she wanted to change her address on her card and to move her file from the East Jerusalem branch of Misrad Hapnim to the West Jerusalem branch. Besides the inconvenience of going to the East Jerusalem branch now that she lived in West Jerusalem, Kay was scared of the journey into and out of East Jerusalem, also she was sick and tired of the reams and reams of bureaucratic red-tape that seemed to come with any request that had to be made through the East Jerusalem office.
When we got there we both had to take numbers. Kay's number was called and she went forward with all her relevant information. Now I have changed my address, I am shocked to inform you, 8 times since making Aliyah. In order to change my address I never had to do more than turn up at Misrad Hapnim with my id card and fill out a form to change my address. The whole changing address process never took me more than 20 min to complete, even when there were lines and lines of people at Misrad Hapnim. Kay returned after 10 min, she was obviously very upset. They had informed her that she would need to live at her new address for a minimum of 6 months. Afterwhich she would need to bring proof of residence, including copies of bills in her name sent to her new address, plus a letter from her landlord. At this point they would review her status and decide whether or not to move her file to West Jerusalem and change her address on her id card. The owner of the apartment where she was renting had all the bills listed in his name (I have rented many times where the phone, electricity and land tax (arnona) bills remained in the name of the owner of the apartment and all I had to do was pay them each month when they arrived).
I was enraged! My number was called and 15 min later I had a new name on my id card, my passport and I had changed my address.
Kay and I went across the road afterwards - I offered to buy her breakfast because I could see how distressed she was. She told me over breakfast that she is unable to get an Israeli passport, even though she was born here. She has a travel document that needs to be approved everytime she wants to leave the country. A process that can takes weeks, sometimes even months. Then once she has a renewed travel document, she has to apply for a Visa to visit the country she wants to travel to (she has a sister living in America, and other family in Australia) this process too can take weeks to months. Hell even I don't plan my travel that far in advance. The worst is that sometimes, inevitably, the travel document has expired by the time she gets the Visa to travel.
What happens is that Kay and her family employ the services, at great expense to themselves, of a lawyer who deals with processing documents like this. This week I asked Kay about her status vis-a-vis her application for citizenship and the change to her id card, she told me it is now with their family lawyer. Like I said it has been almost a year since she moved, and it may still take her months before she sees any result from this, if at all.
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There is one more story I would like to share. A Christian Arab man I have worked with for the last 7 years had a sister who was gravely ill in Australia. This man had been trying to get a Visa and travel documents together to go to Australia and visit his sister. He came to me and asked if I would be willing to write him a recommendation letter (I hold Australian citizenship, he thought this may help).
I was at the time the manager of the department where this man worked. I did not hesitate to write a glowing letter stating that I had personally known and worked with this man for 7 years. In all the time I have known him he has been an exemplary worker etc... I wrote that as an Australian citizen I see no reason why this man should be delayed from receiving entry Visas and travel documents to Australia and that I would be willing to stand up and testify to his good character if called upon. I wrote my letter at the beginning of this year. In June 2004, while I was away on Honeymoon I heard that he had finally received permission to visit his sister. While he was on his way to Australia, his sister died. He never did get to see her - but at least he made it for the funeral. Perhaps there was more I should have done?
I am ashamed!!
