Establish Family Health Centers in East Jerusalem Neighborhoods Beyond the Separation Barrier

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On November 11, 2021, ACRI petitioned the Supreme Court along with a group of mothers, residents of Jerusalem, demanding that the state establish Tipat Halav family health centers in neighborhoods beyond the separation barrier. Tipat Halav family health centers provide essential health and medical services to infants and babies, as well as to pregnant women from the early stages of pregnancy to new parenthood. These centers are available to everyone living in Israel and are essential in the early years of a child's life.

However, over fifteen years have passed since the state pledged to establish two Tipat Halav clinics in neighborhoods beyond the separation barrier and nothing has happened. Residents of the Shuafat refugee camp and adjacent neighborhoods must still spend hours on the road and cross a checkpoint to access these essential services.

There are tens of thousands of residents of Israel who live in the neighborhoods of northeast Jerusalem, located beyond the separation barrier: Ras Khamis, Ras Shehadeh, Dahiyat a-Salam, and the Shuafat refugee camp. Thousands of the neighborhood are infants, toddlers, young children, pregnant women, and parents – i.e the target population for Tipat Halav services. While the distribution of Tipat Halav clinics in other parts of the city enables easy and convenient access, in these neighborhoods there is not a single Tipat Halav clinic operated by the Jerusalem Municipality that is supervised by the Ministry of Health.

The petition states that Tipat Halav services are essential for the health, development, and well-being of infants, toddlers, children, and mothers, and that the rationale behind the establishment of Tipat Halav clinics is the provision of accessible services to community residents near their homes. The current situation violates the rights of residents in neighborhoods beyond the separation barrier, to equality, health, and access to health services.

On April 25, 2022, a hearing was held on the petition, and the Ministry of Health informed the court that within three months a tender would be completed for the establishment of a Tipat Halav clinic in the neighborhoods beyond the Separation Wall. The court ordered the state to submit an update by September 5, 2022.

Since then, additional updates have been submitted regarding tenders that were issued and disqualified. Even when a someone was finally chosen to establish and operate a Tipat Halav, three years after the petition was filed, he failed to comply with the conditions set by the Ministry, and so was subsequently disqualified.

In November 2025, the State submitted another update, which revealed that there was no progress, and that, in fact, the situation has not changed since the petition was originally filed in 2021. To reiterate: although in 2022 the Ministry of Health committed to ensuring progress towards and the the establishment of a Tipat Halav in the neighborhood within a few months, it did absolutely nothing for three years. Therefore, following a hearing held on November 17, 2025, the Supreme Court issued a conditional order ordering the State and the municipality to explain why two well-staffed Tipat Halav clinics should not be established in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the wall.

HCJ 7566/21 Al-Husseini v. Head of Public Health Services, Ministry of Health

Attorney: Tal Hassin

For a full list of legal correspondence and articles written about this issue, see here (Hebrew).