previously stipulated by the Interior Ministry95. HaMoked, the Israeli human rights organization, sought clarification on the legal basis for these procedures, as well as copies of the procedures and information of where they were to be published, but received no response.96 Currently, there is no relevant provision of law and the registration is done in accordance with an internal procedure of the Ministry of Interior: • If the child is younger than 14 years old; the parents must apply for family unification including proving their center of life in Jerusalem; • If the child is older than 14 years old, the only status the Ministry of Interior would grant is a temporary permit that allows the child to remain in Israel or Jerusalem. The permit is similar to a tourist visa. However, the child is permitted to remain in the country with his parents, although he is not registered in the Population Registry, therefore has no state health insurance, and is not covered by the National Insurance Institute.97 Israeli statistics on the processing of applications for child registration have been consistently scarce, vague and/or contradictory. This dearth of statistics is deliberate, designed to obscure the degree to which the impact of Israeli policy on family unification, consequently on child registration, has been disproportionate and irrelevant to the reasons Israel officially invokes to justify it. Nonetheless, since 2004 the Ministry of Interior received 17,616 applications for child registration; of them 12,247 were approved, while 3,933 were rejected. Of those rejected, 44 were on the basis of the ‘center of life’ policy, whilst 12 were on the basis of ‘security’ concerns, even though they are related to minors younger than 14 years.98 According to data of Physicians for Human Rights, there exist now some 10,000 children who are not registered with the Ministry of Interior.99 95 Yael Stein, 30. 96 Ibid. 97 HaMoked, “The Regional Labor Court Rules: Children with Only One Israeli-Resident Parent Are Not Entitled to Health Insurance While Their Residency Status Is Still Unresolved” (HaMoked Center for the Defence of the Individual, July 2, 2013), http://www.hamoked.org/Document. aspx?dID=Updates1231. 98 “Press Release: Ministry of Interior: 43% of the Family Unification Applications Rejected between 2000 and 2013” (Society of St. Yves - Catholic Center for Human Rights, September 16, 2013), http:// saintyves.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=198%3Aministry-of-interior-43of-the-family-unification-applications-rejected-between-2000-and-2013&catid=49%3Apress-release&Itemid=18&lang=en. 99 OCHA, “Special Focus: East Jerusalem”. 41