Bilal Safi and Katherina Garrero-Cardona. (Photo by Guy Raivitz)

Israeli citizenship law grants foreign nationals who marry Israeli partners legal standing, first as residents and then as citizens. According to Interior Ministry procedures, the foreign spouse can undergo a five-year naturalization process, to prove the couple is genuine and to prevent illegal entry of citizens from Third World countries through fictitious marriages.

However, the Population Registry does not abide by the law and the naturalization procedures of the Interior Ministry and even ignores the policy set by Interior Minister Avraham Poraz, who wants to alleviate the state's strict immigration policy. As if the difficulties facing those who wish to become citizens weren't enough, in some cases the Population Registry requires - as a condition for processing their requests - that applicants report relatives who are in Israel illegally and even help to deport them.

Bilal Safi from Jaffa and Katherina Garrero-Cardona from Columbia married about five years ago at the Shi'ite courthouse in Jaffa. The couple, both 25, have a 1-year-old daughter. By law, the Population Registry should have already issued Garrero-Cardona an Israeli identification card, yet the registry's Tel Aviv bureau is refusing to process her naturalization. Ten months ago the bureau informed her that, as a condition for handling her application, she must present exit stamps for her mother and 13-year-old brother, who are apparently residing in Israel without visas, "or a detailed explanation of when they left the country and where they are."

"I cannot help the state deport my mother and brother," Garrero-Cardona said. "Before my marriage I converted to Islam, and since then my mother has been angry with me and I have no contact with her."

Since the Population Registry is not handling her status, Garrero-Cardona has been rendered an illegal resident in Israel. "This is an intolerable situation," her husband said. "We are afraid every knock at the door is the Immigration Police come to deport Katherina."

Safi has been confined to a wheelchair for the past 18 months, following an accident at work. "I depend on my wife for daily needs," he said. "Grocery shopping, for example, has become a complicated task because we're afraid Katherina will be arrested on the street." Safi claims the state is discriminating against him because he is an Arab. "My wife's friends from Columbia who married Jews have long since received Israeli identification cards," he said.

Safi claims he has met all demands by the Tel Aviv Population Registry to prove the seriousness of his marriage. "I provided them with notarized confirmation that we live in my mother's apartment in Jaffa, proof of a joint bank account, and also brought confirmation of municipal tax payments and utility bills. I don't understand what further proof I can give the state and why the Interior Ministry continues to jerk us around."

The couple's lawyer, Oded Peler of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, says the Population Registry is "employing illegal bullying and blackmail." According to Peler, the Interior Ministry's demand that citizenship applicants remove their relatives from the country is unauthorized. "The foreign spouse of the Israeli citizen does not work for the Interior Ministry or the Immigration Police and does not have to provide information about relatives, help them to detain or deport them, as a condition for receiving service from the Population Registry." Peler added that he asked the Population Registry for clarification of this case a month ago, but has not yet received any response.

Peler added that the Population Registry's handling of the matter is not unusual, and that three similar cases have found their way to ACRI in the past 18 months. Pressure from human rights organizations have led the registry each time to back down from its illegal demands.