Are Israel’s Ministry of Interior and the Population and Immigration Authority trying to deny citizenship to Bedouin residents of the Negev Desert? Both the ministry and the attorney general’s office claim that the problems are the result of registration errors, which are currently being fixed. Nevertheless, the number of complaints is still large. Bedouin who have lost their citizenship have appealed to the office of Knesset member Aida Touma-Suleiman of the Arab Joint List, asking her to investigate the situation. Meanwhile, Attorney Sawsan Zaher from the Adalah Legal Center appealed to Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, demanding that the policy be overturned. Her appeal claims that this has been happening since at least 2010.
According to Adalah, when Bedouin in the Negev go to the Interior Ministry to take care of their mundane affairs — a change of address, obtaining a birth certificate, registering a name, and so on — their status, and that of their parents and grandparents, is checked against the population registry, reaching as far back as the 1948 founding of the state. In certain cases, the ministry informs them right then and there that they received their citizenship by mistake, and then changes their status on the population registry from citizen to permanent resident.
Adalah says that those people whose citizenship is revoked are given no explanation as to why, nor are they granted the option to appeal. Instead, the ministry staff suggests that they submit a request to begin the normal naturalization process to obtain citizenship.
Upon appealing these cases with the minister of interior, Adalah has found that some of these Bedouin have been citizens for 20, 30 and even 40 years. They paid taxes, voted in the elections and in, some cases, even served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Then, a bureaucrat at the Ministry of Interior came along and revoked their citizenship, turning them into permanent residents. They can still vote in local elections, but they cannot run for office, and they cannot vote or run for office in national elections. They receive social benefits — health insurance and social security — but they cannot obtain a passport, and if they leave the country for an extended period, their status as resident could be revoked. Nor is their status transferred automatically to their children, as it would be with citizens.
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