Israeli Passport Renewal from Abroad

To Deserve an Israeli Passport:
One Must Maintain Continuous Contact with the State of Israel

If you are an Israeli citizen living abroad, you may find it pays to visit Israel once in a while.

This was the case of Mr. Shultz (the petitioner) against the Ministry of Interior of Israel (the respondent) in the Appeals Court in Jerusalem before the Honorable Judge Mr. Moshe Sobol.

The petitioner was born in Israel in 1954 but in the beginning of 1990 he left Israel using a foreign passport, never returning to Israel again.

The law stipulates that a person living outside Israel must register and present himself once a year in the Israeli Embassy at his place of dwelling abroad in order to be entitled to receive service from the Embassy/consulate. The alternative for this can be maintaining continuous contact with the State of Israel.

In 1999, the petitioner received a new Israeli passport in the Israeli Embassy in New York and 10 years passed until the validity of this passport ended in February 2009. When he attempted to renew his passport the Embassy refused to issue him a new passport. Thereafter he hired a lawyer in Israel who he had met in June 2009 with the help of a civil servant responsible for passports in the Ministry of Interior.

As a result of this meeting, the petitioner received a one-year extension of his passport in July 2009 issued at the Israeli Embassy in Switzerland in order to allow the petitioner to come to Israel and request a new passport here. The petitioner did not come to Israel but again asked for a new passport. He was denied but was offered a temporary travel pass valid for 6 months which he refused.

The petitioner claimed not to be able to come to Israel due to monetary limitations and family business. He also claimed his rights to travel freely were being limited against the basic laws of Israel and more: He claimed to be a donor to the state of Israel, his wife was constantly coming to Israel, one of his children served in the IDF and that he was never told on any occasion he should register himself at an Israeli Embassy abroad.

On October 18th the Honorable Judge decided in favor of the respondent and imposed a fine of 5,000 shekels on the petitioner.

The Judge, after hearing all the sides and examining the affidavits presented to him, decided that the petitioner did not comply with the law because of the detailed reasons as follows.

There was no proof whatsoever that the petitioner was a donor to Israel and he did not present any evidence of this. Concerning the fact that his son served in the IDF, the Judge stressed the fact of his son being 24 years old and had served in the army in the past and not presently. Not only this, but the petitioner left Israel when his son was only four years old, leaving him behind and had never come to visit him. About his claim concerning his wife coming constantly to Israel, the Judge pointed to the fact that the last time she visited Israel was 12 years ago.

The Judge did not accept any of the petitioner’s arguments concerning his monetary limitations and family business and in fact it was proven beyond any doubt that these arguments had no basis in reality.

Conclusion: If you are living abroad for many years and want to be entitled to receive all the services the State of Israel offers you in its Embassies and consulates around the world, you need to register and visit the Embassy once a year to re-register. The alternatives are as the law stipulates: “A constant and continuous contact with Israel.”

Pay a visit, keep property in Israel or even better - Come back and join us here.

  Sincerely,

  Tzvi Szajnbrum, Attorney at Law

How to Fix an Israeli Door Handle - A Photographic Guide

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and may not be used without written permission from the writer

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You're living life in Israel and just loving it! All seems to be going just fine. You've got the apartment sorted out and everything seems to be in working order... Then suddenly one of your door handles breaks! You try tightening a screw, but it doesn't seem to help! If you're renting, you could speak to your landlord about the problem, wait weeks before anything is done and then perhaps end up hiring the services of a professional to take care of this nuisance!

Or... You could simply tune in to a great blog like Welcoming Olim, find a neat photographic tutorial on how to deal with life in Israel - and learn to fix it yourself! It's easy. Don't worry. Things do break in Israel. There are some who seem to have flawless apartments - the kind where nothing ever breaks even over decades. But if you're one of the more normal people in Israel, you may find things breaking every now and again. Don't get yourself down. Things like fixing a door handle are quite simple, relatively cheap to do - and you get the satisfying reward of knowing you've done it yourself! You've saved yourself fortunes in unnecessary expenditure, and the hassle of waiting for someone else to take care of it for you. Not least of all - you've saved face with having to discuss this "nasty" issue with your landlord - if you're renting!

So, let's get started and fix that door handle!

Step 1: You'll probably need to purchase a set of Allen Keys (Pic below). Now, don't be frightened by this. Actually when you buy your new handle kit, you'll probably find that it comes with its own Allen Key. If so, you can skip this step. If not, a new set will cost you around 20 shekel and you'll have it for life. Get yourself the better set if you can afford it. You could choose something cheaper - say 13 shekel or so - but will it be worth it when it gives in after just a few turns?! In any case, when it comes to life in Israel, it's a great idea to get yourself some good tools. You may be in need of them more often than you think. So whenever you have the opportunity to add something to your new tool kit - go for it - you won't regret it!

Step 2: You probably won't have to worry about this next stage because if the handle is broken, it will fall out of the hole on its own! If it's still stuck in the door, give it a good pull, it will come out. You'll be left with the two sides of the handle. (See pic below of the broken handles!) You'll notice an Allen screw on the left handle. Actually what happened here is that this screw eventually wore itself out. Don't worry - it happens to the best of Israeli handles!

Take a look at the pic below. You'll notice on the right side a slightly wider area where the screw had been inserted. Due to wear and tear, it actually created a bigger hole inside the opening eventually causing it to become so large that it just fell out. It is impossible to put a new screw in there - as it will just fall out again. That's why it was necessary to purchase a new handle altogether!

Below you'll see a new door handle kit! It comes with some screws, it's own Allen key (yes!) and other trimmings including two washers (don't forget these!), just in case you need to install everything. Our tutorial will only cover the basic handle without the trimmings. The kit below will set you back some 22 shekels!

The new handle shown in the picture below shows how the two sides will fit together. On the left - you'll see the Allen screw which is what will hold everything together.

Step 3: Before inserting the new handle, make sure to slip on the two washers we spoke about above. See image below where you can clearly see the new handles with the washers on them.

The picture below shows what the door looks like without it's handle. You'll be inserting the new handle in the top. It fits in rather easily - as you can probably work out! In the event that the silver rings break off, you'd have to replace them with your new kit as well. In our case, everything is still where it should be. In any case, if you did have to replace them - you can see how easy it would be. You'd simply have to remove the two screws, remove those silver disks, and replace them with new ones. 

In case you're wondering... this is a modern bathroom door. It even has one of those fancy "In use" disks which turns red when there's someone in the bathroom. (I guess it has it's own sense of embarrassment! Either that, or the person inside had the good sense to turn the key!)

Step 4: Insert the handle with the large metal connector. In our case we have inserted this side of the handle on the outside of the door with the long metal connected on the inside. The picture below shows what the hole looks like with the one side of the handle peeping through. You'll be snapping on the other side of the handle over that, closing it tightly and voila!

There you have it! The picture below shows the handle on the other side of the door neatly fitted!

Take a look at the image below. You'll see that the small Allen screw is jutting out. Once both sides of the handle are connected (on opposite sides of the door) you'll need to screw this in tightly.

Step 5: Insert the Allen key into the screw as shown in the pic below, and tighten it!

DONE! (See below!) - WELL DONE!

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and may not be used without written permission from the writer

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How to Change your Tris (Shutters) in Israel - a Practical Photographic Guide

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This article is copyright

and may not be used without written permission from the writer

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Our previous post about Trisim spoke about the ins and outs of Israeli shutters, and how the Tris works. This post details with photographs – step by step, the exact procedure necessary to actually fix the Tris.

Here's how to do it:

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