Following N12 report: Temporary injunction issued to prevent deportation of Telma Kasau — she will be able to stay with her partner and daughters
The court issued an order preventing the removal from Israel of Telma, a mother of an Israeli daughter and the common-law partner of an Israeli citizen. The legal battle will continue to be managed by her lawyers, but she will be able to remain by her family's side during the process. Her 16-year-old daughter Adi said last week: "I didn't think a day would come when they would decide that my mom should leave me."
The Appeals Tribunal in Jerusalem issued on Tuesday a temporary injunction preventing the removal from Israel of Telma Kasau, a mother of a daughter who is an Israeli citizen, and the common-law partner of an Israeli citizen. This follows the report last week on N12 regarding the decision by the Population and Immigration Authority that could have broken up her family. This means that Telma will be able to remain by the side of her partner Eyal and her daughters. The tribunal ordered the Population and Immigration Authority to submit its response to the appeal. The legal battle for her right to continue her life in the country together with her family, which is being managed by her lawyers from the Varsha-Weitzman firm, will continue.
The reason for the Population and Immigration Authority's decision, which is now stayed, is Telma's lack of success in divorcing the person she married almost 30 years ago. This is despite the fact that she and her Israeli partner, Eyal Lev, underwent tests on behalf of the Authority, which showed that their relationship is exclusive. Over the years, the Authority asked the mother to dissolve the connection in order to regulate her status in Israel. Before the injunction was issued, the Authority rejected her request to extend it again and notified her that she must leave the country. The Director of the Visas and Status Division at the Population Authority, Ronit Elian, wrote in a letter to Telma's lawyers:
"It should be noted beyond what is necessary that it has been ruled more than once that the right to family life of an Israeli is relative and is not the be-all and end-all."
"I don't want to be angry at my country, I just want someone to stop this and understand for a moment what this decision is doing to me and my family," 16-year-old daughter Adi Lev told N12. "I was born here, I grew up here, this is my country, this is my home, that's why it's so hard for me to understand how my country can decide that my mom needs to leave." Adi said she wants whoever made the decision to understand that there is a 16-year-old girl whose family might fall apart: "I am not asking for special treatment, only that my mom stays with me."
Attorney Varsha, whose firm Varsha-Weitzman represents the family, stated in response:
"We are happy that our quick and determined legal action, alongside the important media exposure, brought about the freezing of the mother's deportation and the continuation of the proceedings without breaking up the family. We will continue to act on the legal level with full force to correct the shameful injustice that the Population Authority has caused here to an Israeli family."
