We identified five major categories of women who seek our assistance and need to become aware of their rights and utilize the existing procedures:
The first group is foreign women victims of trafficking. These women had been trafficked to Israel for purposes of prostitution, succeeded in escaping from their traffickers, and remained in Israel for different reasons, such as: testifying against their traffickers, rehabilitation in a shelter for trafficking victims, have children with an Israeli citizen, entering into relationships with Israeli citizens, and more.
The second group is battered immigrant women. These women were in violent relationships with Israeli citizens, lived with them as common-law partners or were married to them. The procedure of obtaining status in Israel gives the Israeli male partner further power in addition to the power he already has as a violent man. The Israeli partner not only has physical and verbal power over his immigrant partner, but also the control over her civil status, as the procedure of obtaining status requires his full cooperation as well as his physical presence at the relevant government offices. The woman’s complete dependency on her partner to obtain status allows him to be violent and to abuse her, while threatening her that he will not help with her visa. That is, the procedures and law perpetuate a situation of an even more severe asymmetry within the general inequality between the two partners. To be more precise, this creates a situation in which the woman’s dependence on her male partner is absolute.
The third group is composed of women who arrived in Israel legally on a B1 visa as migrant workers for a period of five years and three months. Following the expiration of their visa, they remained in Israel illegally, living in a relationship with an Israeli citizen. These women also live in constant fear of the authorities and are not aware of their rights. In fact, as a partner of an Israeli citizen, the foreign woman is entitled to file a request at the Ministry of Interior to obtain a status of common-law partners. However, usually the women are not aware of this right.
The fourth group we identified is a group of foreign mothers who, as a result of involvement in a relationship with an Israeli citizen, had given birth to children who are Israeli citizens. The relationship ended and the woman remained alone with her Israeli-born children. According to Israeli law, a mother of children who are Israeli citizens is not entitled to receive Israeli citizenship, and she has to file an application with the inter-ministerial committee for granting status on humanitarian grounds and to justify her request for status.
The fifth group of immigrant women are widows of Israeli partners. These women were widowed during the graduated procedure of applying for status and had not completed the process. In these cases, too, the women have to apply to the inter-ministerial committee on humanitarian issues and file a request to receive a status in Israel, in accordance to the prerequisites set in the procedures.
