HCJ 10650/03 Abu Gwella et. al v

138. It is not necessary to expand on the great importance of publishing the decisions and
procedure of state authorities. We see from the description of events set forth above
that the Respondents took care not to publish its changing policy, forcing the residents
to discover the changes that had been made regarding their most basic rights and
needs, over which the Respondents were entrusted, only after frequent visits to the
Ministry of the Interior’s office or by announcements published by human rights
organizations. Unfortunately, recent attempts to discover the procedures for arranging
the status of children of residents who were born outside of Israel, or if such
procedures in fact exist, were in vain.
139. As described above, it was not until the correspondence with clerks in the office of
Respondent 3 that the Petitioners learned about the refusal of Respondent 3 to register
children in their situation. The response of Respondent 3 was received only after
repeated requests by Petitioner 6. Questions asked by Petitioner 6 in its letters of 14
August and 29 September 2002 were not answered.
140. As a result of the failure of the Respondents to publish their decisions, many families
that are not represented wait in vain to register their children, and it is very doubtful
whether other residents in the same situation as the Petitioners, but who do not have
representation, would receive any reply whatsoever from Respondent 3. Also,
formulating a decision in writing and publishing it provides further guarantee that
discretion lies at the foundation of the decision.
141. The right of the public to know and receive information from the state authorities as
regards their actions is a right set forth expressly in Israeli legislation and case law.
The public’s right to know is a necessary means for public review of the actions of
state authorities; the right is important to ensure public trust in the authorities’ actions,
for there can be no public trust where actions are taken in secret. The public’s right to
know also entails the right of every member of the public to have direct access to
information that the state authorities gather in carrying out their functions. The
corollary of the right of the public to know is the “duty of persons holding public
positions to provide information to members of the public” (HCJ 1601-1604/90, Shalit
et al. v. Peres et al., Piskei Din 41 (32) 365).
Regarding the obligation to publish criteria and procedures, see HCJ 5537/91, Efrati v.
Ostfeld et al., Piskei Din 46 (3) 501; HCJ 3648/97, Stemkeh et al. v. Minister of the
Interior et al., Piskei Din 53 (2) 728, 767-768.
142. We see from all the above that the Respondents must act, as regards children born in
the Occupied Territories, in accordance with the guidelines set forth in Section 12 of
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