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Anwar
Ghazem's entire world is his father's apartment in East Jerusalem,
located near Damascus Gate, along with its courtyard and a stall in the
market down below. If he goes even a few dozen meters from his home, he
will be arrested by Border Policemen, many of whom are permanently
stationed in that area.
When Odeh Aliada of the unrecognized village of Bir Daj was hit by a
car, he rejected the driver's urgings that he go to a hospital, even
though he had suffered internal injuries. His fear of the Israeli system
was greater than his fear of injury.
When Ghazem proposed marriage to his beloved, her father told him that
there would be something to talk about only if he acquired an identity
card.
For his part, Aliada has spent his entire life as a herdsman, first
tending sheep and then tending camels; he has no chance of finding
steady employment.
These two are the protagonists of the first two installments of the
series "The Nonexistent," published in Haaretz over the last few weeks,
which deals with Israelis that have no formal legal status, neither here
nor anywhere else in the world.
What all of these people have in common is that they are not ordinary
illegal immigrants. They were born here, or have lived here for dozens
of years, and they have nowhere else to go. However, due solely to
bureaucratic reasons, they have no legal status here. And because they
have no status, they have no identity card; they can be arrested at any
moment; they have no health insurance; they cannot get a driver's
license; and they cannot work legally. They are present absentees, the
ghosts of the Population Administration.
Something else that they all have in common is that their problem will
not go away, because they cannot be deported. There is nowhere to send
them. Therefore, the state has two options: Either it can grant them
residency rights, which would enable them to work and support themselves
and their families, or it can leave them with their current transparent
status.
Many of us have hardened our hearts to the troubles of non-Jews. But
whether we solve this problem of not, it will have no influence on the
demographic balance, because these people are here, even if they are not
counted.
If, however, the problem is not solved, it will continue to worsen, and
the numbers of people affected will triple and even quadruple in the
near future. Dozens of Bedouin women who lack legal status are giving
birth to numerous children, and they pass this terrible nonexistent
status on to their offspring. Defense officials speak of a Bedouin
intifada in terms of when, not if. It is reasonable to assume that
dozens or hundreds of teens who lack legal status, are unable to work,
and have no future and no hope will pour a great deal of oil onto this
fire.
And why does the Population Administration not solve this problem?
Perhaps because its staffers view themselves as guardians of the gates
of the Jewish state, via granting legal status to as few non-Jews as
possible. The administration's formal response is that anyone can apply
for legal status, but the administration will not go out into the field
to seek the problem cases. That is a nice answer in theory, but in
practice, these are generally people without education, who do not know
Hebrew, who do not understand bureaucracy, cannot work and have no money
for lawyers. These are the weakest members of society, who have no
chance of navigating the Population Administration's obstacle course.
But instead of extending a hand to them, we are turning a deaf ear to
their suffering and treating them cruelly.
A public committee should be established to propose a solution to the
problem of those who lack legal status. The committee should try to
locate and identify such people - on the basis of testimony from
relatives, local community leaders and the few documents the people
possess - and grant them residency rights. Until then, every time
Israeli society looks in a mirror, the "nonexistent" will peer out from
the edges and demand vengeance for this living death into which we have
pushed them.
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