Refugees

The State of Israel is a signatory to the International Convention on the Status of Refugees and the Protocol supplementing it. Domestic legislation has not adopted the provisions of the Refugee Convention, but the state is obliged to respect them under international treaty law. Accordingly, the ‘presumption of conformity applies to the Convention according to which unity exists between the state laws and the international law norms binding on the Israeli state; this means that Israeli law must be interpreted as far as possible in a manner consistent with international law. Israel’s obligation to comply with the Convention’s provisions is reflected in the relevant procedure with the Ministry of the Interior.

The Convention defines a refugee as someone who is outside the country of his citizenship because of a well-founded fear of being persecuted on the grounds of race, religion, citizenship, belonging to a particular social group, or a specific political view, and cannot accept the protection of that country because of the fears mentioned.

That is, for a person to be granted refugee status, the protections, and rights attached to it, he must prove the actuality of 4 elements: (1) the existence of a well-founded fear of persecution; (2) the persecution cause is one of the five causes listed in the Convention – race, religion, citizenship/nationality, belonging to a particular social group or political opinion / political conception; (3) the asylum seeker’s presence outside his country due to the same fear; (4) Lack of ability or unwillingness on the part of the asylum seeker to receive the protection of his country due to the said fear.