Israeli apartheid: living in Lod doesn’t make you a resident if you marry a Palestinian
Israeli woman denied social benefits for visiting Palestinian husband
by Dana Weiler-Polak in Haaretz, 22nd June 2009
S. was born in Lod, where she lived all her life and is raising her four children. Her only sin, apparently, was in marrying a resident of the territories. That was enough for the National Insurance Institute to continually investigate her, withhold her social benefits and humiliate her.
S., now in her eighth month of pregnancy, has two girls in kindergarten in Lod. She has worked in the city, owns an apartment and pays her bills on time. She is also a client at the local Health Maintenance Organization and well-baby clinics in her neighborhood.
However, despite all these facts, the NII has determined that S. does not live in Lod, but rather in the territories with her husband, who is not allowed into Israel.
The NII decided this was the case following S.'s declaration that she had made a short trip to the territories. This means that all her social benefits can be taken away, including her child allowances and payment of her hospital bill when she gives birth, and health insurance for S. and her children.
The last NII investigation, which took 14 months, determined what the two others over the past six years have, that she does not live in Lod. The NII informed S. in a letter that she had 45 days to appeal the decision before her benefits were halted. However, they were stopped immediately.
S. said clerks at her local NII branch refused to accept her appeal, shouting that she was a liar who had children only for the insurance benefits.
S.'s second attempt to approach the NII also ended with her being turned away by shouting clerks rejecting a residency document she had submitted.
A worker from the legal aid group Community Advocacy accompanied S. to the NII with the appeal and a thick file of documents, which the NII rejected the same day. Sigalit Givon-Fadida, director of the Lod Community Advocacy branch, said dozens of their clients had been humiliated by NII clerks, which regularly "prevented people from being innocent until proven guilty."
The National Insurance Institute responded that their investigation showed that S. was not a Lod resident and was therefore not entitled to benefits and that S. could appeal to the Labor tribunal. They said the NII clerks had not behaved in the manner S. described.