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Immigration Board expressed no doubts that this conflict took place in reality. In the same time the commissioners did
attempts to misrepresent this event and to place it in dependence of mentioned in my wife's Israeli eternal passport
nationality. Maitre Dore, who replaced my main lawyer during the time of the hearings, did a mistake, allowing the
commissioners to lead him in that question. In reality, I would reject "Talpiot's" administration demands to show my
wife's passport-related nationality even if it was marked as "Jewish": because for the people like me such a demand
was disgracing and racist. And I do not think that this little incident was the real reason of the refusal. But I could not
name the "reason" because the term "political persecutions" is too abstract for the commissioners.
5. The Ministry's of Labor governmental Labor Exchange refused to register me as unemployed after the first
accommodative trial period in Israel. Israeli regulations by then put some restrictions on employers to employ a
person who was not registered by the governmental labor exchange. In reality, it was equal to a refusal of an
employment authorization. In the same time this refusal prevented us from getting any social assistance, too. (See
letter from Maitre S. Levin to the Labor Exchange administration: Supplements, Document # 49).
(This also was discussed during the refugee hearings).
6. When - in spite of that - I had found an official job and was employed, and my wife was employed, too, we were
paid less then the minimum wage. We had to be paid by the government an additional amount of money till the level
of the income security, but were refused.
7. We struggled till our last day in Israel for the right to obtain an official explanation in writing of the refusal to register
us at labor exchange, to pay us welfare, and to get an adjustment till the subsisting minimum, which had to be paid us
according to the law. We demanded to present us the reasons of all these refusals, but we did not succeed in our
demands...
8. We also turned to the Civil Court, and the court recognized me as an unemployed. But the labor's exchange
administration refused to register me even then, in spite of the Civil Court's decision. (See this decision in
Supplements, Document #50).
All these above-mentioned items were mentioned during our refugee hearing but the commissioners avoided evaluating them in context of
our refugee claim but transferred the discussions to the demagogical and political spheres.
This justify the next question: was it a refugee hearing or it was a political process or a pro-Israeli propaganda forum?
9. My wife, and me - we turned to a number of personalities, organizations and institutions like lawyer Maitre Stanley
Levin, Histadrut, Sochnut, Civil Court of Petach-Tikva, Ratz (Movement for Human Rights and Peace), municipality of
Petach-Tikva, municipality's legal consultant, and so on, without any result. (See the whole list in Supplements, #8).
This topic was one of the most widely discussed during our refugee hearings!
10. The commissioners could easy conclude that this situation removed our legal status in Israel from us. We became
people without any legal status because we were socially (and legally) totally deprived. We could not obtain a bank card,
credit card, take a loan, be responsible for any business operation, in other words, had no rights of citizens.
11. After my wife was bitten on her job and turned to police, she was not paid her salary. No institution (this event was
discussed during our immigration hearings) expressed a will to defend her rights.
To examine documents related to this part see our file and also Supplements, Documents #51,52.
B). Incredible financial pressure through illegal billing, taxation, or fines.
1. Illegal billings. Exaggerated telephone bills, bills for long-distance calls, which we never did, etc., were coming. We had
to pay all of them because it was no place where to turn to dispute them.
2. Taxation. We had to pay taxes for TV, which we did not have by then (in Israel you must pay taxes for radio and TV), for
medicine and medical services (some of them fresh immigrants or - in other cases - people with small income - did not
have to pay). We were also forced to pay municipal tax instead of the owners of the apartment, which we rented. In that
case as new arrivals we were eligible to pay reduced tax for immovable property, but were given this privilege only in 1994,
short time before we left for Canada. In spite of the law that new immigrants do not pay taxes I was forced to pay taxes
from money I earned playing concerts. Ministry of Taxation and Revenues has also submitted us an application form for
paying taxes as if we had an enterprise and refused to pay taxes. This form was submitted to us not from Tel-Aviv, as
normally was practiced, but from Jerusalem - as if I was a special person. There were other examples of such taxation.
(Examples of such bills were presented to the commissioners).
3. We had to pay fines for things we did not do and for violations we never committed.
Supporting documents are enclosed (see Supplements, Documents #53,54).
C). Draft Board has submitted me orders to appear sometimes every several days. I know that the compulsory military
service for people of my age, who never were in the army in any country before, was not practicing. I do not think that they
had intentions to take me to the army anyway. But they called me to appear there so often that it distorted my whole life
and became an obstacle for work or social activity. I had also to spend a lot of money for bus tickets to appear at draft
board, at Tel-ha-Shomer. They also refused to give me a permission to leave the country during more then 3 years.
Supporting documents are enclosed (see Supplements, Documents #55). They were also presented to the
commissioners.
D). I could not say that the whole issue with my wife's eternal passport ("Tehudat Zehut") - during the refugee hearing
was a well-coordinated with the Israeli side provocation (conspiracy) only because I have no material proof. But there are
a lot of coincidences and indications in favor of such a suggestion. When (first I, and later my wife) we were given
"Tehudat Zehuts", clerks told us that this document is the property of Israeli government and do not has to be shown to
any foreigner or taken abroad. I knew many other Russian-speaking people who were told the same. Even Mrs. Malka, the
immigration officer, has to recognize the existence of this regulation (please, listen to immigration hearings tapes, the last
hearing), but she suggested that (as some of Russian speaking people did) we had to violate the law and to bring
(smuggle!) our "Tehudat Zehuts" to Canada illegally!
When the day of our departure from Israel came, we had completely forgotten about this regulation, and our "Tehudat
Zehuts" among other papers were taken to airport. That happened because for us it was a tremendous moment. (Only a
person with sick imagination could suggest that a family like ours could take a hard decision to fly a country where we
(nominally, but...) were citizens and spent more then 3 years just because of economic reasons or "exaggerations"). Car, in
which I was with my friend Igor Puchinsky (my family went to airport in another car before me) was stopped at the military
post by a solder - a Moroccan origin. He told us to get out from the car and to show our identities. I had only my foreign