like other children. After birth, the parents receive only a form titled “notification of live birth”. To receive an identity number, the parents must submit a “request to register a birth” to the Ministry of Interior and include to this request proof that the “centre of life” is in Jerusalem. For example, parents need to provide evidence such as a rental lease agreement, home ownership documents, water and electricity bills, or payment of the municipal tax (Arnona) proving that the permanent resident has been living in Jerusalem for the past two years. It is important to note that parents going to the Ministry of Interior to obtain a birth certificate and register the child’s name in their identity cards are not always aware that the child does not have an identity number. Clerks at the Ministry do not inform them that they must initiate the process of registering the child, but rather issue a birth certificate without an identity number for the child. Interview with Ellen, Jerusalem94 I am a 31 year old woman from Jerusalem, married to a Jerusalemite: We went to Australia for my studies in August 2010, and there I became pregnant. In July 2011, a month before I was due to give birth, I came back alone to Jerusalem as I knew it would be nearly impossible to get an ID for my child if I delivered her in Australia. In August 2011, I gave birth. One week after the delivery I went to the Israeli Ministry of Interior to get her a birth certificate but things did not go well. They asked me about my husband and I told them he was currently in Australia for his studies. The clerk said that he could not complete the registration as we both lived outside of Jerusalem, and that I spent most of my pregnancy overseas. I told him that we went to Australia for 2 years to continue our studies and that we would return to Jerusalem immediately afterwards. He asked me to come back with the necessary documents proving my centre of life to be in Jerusalem. I gathered all the documents needed and gave them to a lawyer. The lawyer managed only to get us a temporary number for my child and told me that my child has to stay in Jerusalem for 2 years to get her actual residency. 3. Child born ‘abroad’ Children born abroad (including the occupied Palestinian territory) to parents where one or both are permanent residents of Jerusalem (and neither of whom is an Israeli citizen) are no longer registered in the Israeli Population Registry through a Child Registration Form, as used to be the case. The current policy demands that parents wanting to register children born outside of Israel submit a request for family unification, rather than for registration of the child, as was 94 Ellen Abed (31), Jerusalem, interview by BADIL, August 2013. 40