Israel deprives East Jerusalem political activists of state insurance, stipends
Suspending medical benefits and halting social benefit payments are common procedures inflicted on East Jerusalem Palestinians
Nir Hasson | May 27, 2021 | 2:34 AM
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-east-jerusalem-political-activists-deprived-of-national-insurance-
Israel has suspended the social and medical benefits of at least 11 Palestinian political activists and their families as well as former prisoners who live in East Jerusalem.
The wife of Majed Al-Jouaba, a resident of Jerusalem’s Old City, discovered the National Insurance Institute had suspended her benefits when she went for a blood test on Wednesday as part of a routine checkup during her pregnancy. According to her husband, the nurse at the health clinic told her she could not receive the results of her test since she was “blocked on the computer system.”
A short investigation revealed that this move was enacted five days earlier. Jouaba is a former security prisoner, known to residents of the Old City and the police as a political activist. He says he did not take part in the demonstrations on the Temple Mount or at Damascus Gate during the city’s latest round of violence. Police make sure they take his ID card every time he comes to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, but he has not been arrested or questioned lately.
Jouaba’s friend Hamza Zghayer discovered that he and his family were also shut out of computers at the National Insurance Institute. His benefits were suspended while he was in hospital with his 11-year-old son, who was hospitalized for an infection. “They told me at the hospital that there was a problem with my insurance; I received no letter or anything. I’ve been working for 17 years in the East Jerusalem Electricity Company and have been paying my National Insurance dues the whole time, but now they tell me there’s a problem. If my child is sick now, where do I take him, to Jordan?”
The purpose of deleting activists and their families’ names from the system is to harass and threaten them, according to sources in East Jerusalem. “The Shin Bet security agency tells the National Insurance to make their lives difficult. Now they have to file requests and appeals to the courts, which will investigate and determine that they are indeed residents of Jerusalem,” said a senior official at one of the health maintenance organizations in East Jerusalem.
The denial of insurance benefits, which includes suspension of medical benefits at health maintenance organizations and a halt to social benefit payments, is a common procedure inflicted on East Jerusalem residents. Usually, this is done based on a claim that the insured person left Jerusalem and is living in the West Bank, or that their center of life is not in Jerusalem. Moving from Jerusalem to the West Bank can mean moving to another part of the same neighborhood or street, which happens to lie on the other side of the municipal boundary.
However, denying people’s rights based on suspicions of security-related offenses is patently illegal. According to Palestinian sources in the city, such a step was taken a few years ago against activists who were involved in the Al-Murabitun movement, a group of demonstrators who used to protest when Jews went to pray on the Temple Mount. They all got their benefits restored, but only after a long investigation process, in which some individuals had to appeal to the courts.
On Wednesday, MK Osama Saadi (Joint List) appealed to the director general of the National Insurance Institute, Meir Shpigler, asking for his urgent intervention in the matter. “It’s unclear on what basis the Institute suspended the eligibility of these families, who are residents of East Jerusalem, and what is the legal basis for stopping their medical and child benefits. This is collective punishment of the insured and their families, with no legal basis and unsupported by any court ruling,” wrote Saadi.
Administrative arrests
Furthermore, in another unusual move, 11 East Jerusalem residents were arrested in recent days and put under administrative arrest, without being presented with any evidence to justify their arrest. The detained are former security prisoners or known Palestinian activists in Jerusalem. They were arrested for periods of three to six months based on an injunction signed by Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
In response to this report, the National Insurance Institute said: “As a rule, residency in East Jerusalem is determined on the basis of evidence, and, at times, based on external investigations. MK Osama’s request was received on Wednesday afternoon and immediately passed onto the press without awaiting a response. As per the request for an immediate response from the newspaper, there has been no opportunity to look into the incidents in depth, and therefore in the coming days the matter will be investigated and a specific response will be given for each case.
“In cases in which it arises that an East Jerusalem resident’s life is centered outside of the Jerusalem municipality, a letter is sent to the insured, which they have the right to appeal. As such, we will clarify that if it is found that the insured’s life is based in Israel, they qualify to retroactively receive all benefits.”
The Shin Bet did not issue a response by press time.