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Now that we had some time to relax over the weekend, we want to thank all the participants in the opening event of our association, and summarize a historic event for the international couples community in Israel!
We were happy to meet familiar faces, chat in a million languages, hear stories so similar and yet so unique from the members of our amazing and special community. 
The founder of the association, Adv Lior Beres, presented the association, its activities in the past year, and the association’s goals for the future. In addition, as part of the event, the association’s website was launched, which is a knowledge base for the community of international couples in Israel > aic.org.il
We were honored and happy to host at our event no less than five public representatives, who are true partners in our community’s path, and allies in advancing our goals.
Deputy Mayor Meital Lehavi – representative of the city of Tel Aviv, who told us about her plans to make it as easy as possible for international couples in their shared lives in Tel Aviv in a variety of areas.
At the event, we held the first panel in Israel on the rights of international couples. Our panel participants, MK Evgeny Sova, MK Gilad Kariv, MK Gaby Lasky and candidate Adi Ezuz expressed great appreciation for the establishment of our association which for the first time ever brings this issue to the forefront of the parliamentary stage.
In the panel we dealt with the fact that the rights of international couples are not enshrined in law and regulations, and that the procedures of the Population Authority do not provide sufficient protection and leave a lot of room for arbitrariness in the status adjustment process.
We talked about the significant difficulty in starting the partner visa process, when the couple has to go through a lengthy procedure of invitation and during this period to stay apart from each other. We talked about the long waiting times, the fact that it is difficult to get a response from PIBA, about the discrimination between married and unmarried couples and between heterosexual couples and LGBT couples.
The members of the Knesset demonstrated proficiency in the association’s fields of activity, presented unequivocal positions in favor of correcting the existing injustices in the gradual process, and pledged to be partners in this endeavor alongside the association in the next Knesset.
Don’t forget to visit the photo album from the event that we uploaded to our Facebook page!
We look forward to seeing you at many more community events, and until then – let’s get to work! 
