The human rights clinic deals with various cases of undocumented persons, at our walk-in human rights’ station in Hadar neighborhood in Haifa,
This case involves a nine year old girl, let’s call her Luna. Luna was born in Israel to Palestinian parents who were legal residents in Israel at the time. Her parents abandoned her and left Israel to the West Bank and her uncle took her in, also a resident in Israel. The uncle has been taking care of her ever since, with the help of his mother, the child’s grandmother. The two caregivers are now requesting to become her legal guardians as well as to be recognized as her foster family. This will also grant Luna legal status in Israel. This has several very important practical implications for Luna’s wellbeing. First, she has no legal status in Israel. The only people she has ever known as family are not her legal guardians, which places her at risk of being expelled from Israel. Further, without legal status Luna has no health insurance, every visit to a doctor is very expensive for her family. Moreover, if Luna should need any medical procedure, her uncle and grandmother would not be authorized to make decisions on her behalf. Additionally, the uncle does not receive child support on her behalf and other services that foster families receive.
Legally speaking there is a challenge here because an application for legal status should be filed by her legal guardians, which are her parents who have lost touch with the family, and are also unable to enter Israel. Another legal challenge involves a decision from 2017 issued by the Muslim court that declared that the child is living with the uncle and grandmother but denied them status as legal guardians.
The clinic is currently tackling this complicated case in several ways. First, filing a special request to allow the uncle and grandmother to represent Luna in her application for legal status. Second, the students are now examining possible legal options for filing another petition to recognize the uncle and grandmother as guardians despite the previous decision by the Muslim court.

the Faculty of Law Legal Clinics Newletter
Contact us for any issue: legalclinics@univ.haifa.ac.il