The existence of this draconian decision was included in papers on a separate case filed by the government with the High Court of Justice Monday. In that case, the government’s existing policy of refusing to include the father's name on foreigners' birth certificates – allegedly unless the parents pay almost $2,000 for a DNA test to confirm the father's paternity – has been challenged.
In Another Blow To African Refugees, Israel Violates International Law And Agreements, Will Deny All Foreigners Born In Israel Birth Certificates
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
In violation of international agreements it has signed, the Government of Israel will reportedly stop issuing birth certificates to babies born to foreigners, the Guardian reported.
The abrupt move is openly targeted at African refugees and asylum seekers and will also be applied to diplomats and official international workers.
The existence of this draconian decision was included in papers on a separate case filed by the government with the High Court of Justice Monday. In that case, the government’s existing policy of refusing to include the father's name on foreigners' birth certificates – allegedly unless the parents pay almost $2,000 for a DNA test to confirm the father's paternity – has been challenged.
One western diplomat was reportedly blocked from being named “his children's father on their birth certificates, and from giving them his family name,” the paper reported.
The government claims it has no legal obligation to issue official birth certificates to foreigners.
Foreigners will be given hospital-issued birth notices, which are currently hand-written in Hebrew and cannot be used to obtain for official documents like passports.
That policy has been challenged by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and other rights groups on behalf of a family of African asylum seekers.
A child from that family was born to parents who had legal permission to stay in Israel and who had legal work permits. But the child was denied a birth certificate that included her father's name. Israel’s Ministry of Interior also refused to give the child her father's last name.
"Determining paternity is liable to determine the status of the father and child in civil law on matters such as inheritance, child support, custody, conversion, names, citizenship, residency, registration in the population registry and more," the government reportedly claimed in court papers, citing that as the reason it has opted to withhold these common legal courtesies from all foreigners. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child was told in June that foreigners who insisted on having their child carry legally its father’s name and have it on the birth certificate were reportedly forced by the Israeli government “to pay nearly $2,000 for a DNA test.”
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – which Israel signed – reportedly says that full birth records are a fundamental right for all children.
Israel’s own law would appear to say the same thing.
"The state has an obligation to protect the identities of all the children in Israel equally. It is also obligated to grant all children, without discrimination, birth certificates. The interior ministry is not authorized to erase elements of a child's identity. It is not entitled to cancel the parenthood of fathers who are not Israeli, nor is it authorized to take away the names given to children by their parents,” Oded Feller, a lawyer with ACRI, reportedly said.
"Israel's purpose is very simple: they don't want foreigners to apply for legal status here. The ministry of interior wants to make it as hard as possible,” A Western diplomat told The Guardian.
On Sunday, Israel’s cabinet approved a bill to hold all African asylum seekers, most of whom are from Sudan and Eritrea, in a detention cetner for a year.
Israel has repeatedly refused to grant refugee status to legitimate asylum seekers and has harassed those asylum seekers in an attempt to get them to flee Israel.
Israel is barred by international law and international agreements it has signed from deporting these people, but has continually tried to implement deportations through trickery and threats of imprisonment.
The vast majority of legitimate African asylum seekers in Israel receive no help from the government and are barred from legally working. Those who have not been incarcerated in primitive detention centers or converted prisons often live in squalid conditions, some sleeping in city parks or on beaches while many others live in small, overcrowded and rundown apartments, often with a dozen or more people sleeping in a one or two bedroom flat.