Israel’s new govt fails to extend ban on Palestinian residency
Under the law passed by Israel’s parliament in 2003, Palestinians and residents of ‘enemy countries’ cannot gain Israeli citizenship or residency, even through marriage
ISRAEL’S new government has failed to pass an extension of a law that bans Palestinians from moving to Israel even if they are married to an Israeli citizen.
In a vote to extend the law, Israel’s new eight-party coalition in parliament fell short of a majority in the early hours of Tuesday after a marathon all-night session.
Of the 120 lawmakers, 59 voted in favour and 59 voted against. Two abstained. A vote of no confidence in the new government also failed.
Under the law passed by Israel’s parliament in 2003, Palestinians and residents of “enemy countries” cannot gain Israeli citizenship or residency, even through marriage.
Israel maintains the decision was triggered by a suicide attack in Haifa in March 2002, in which a bomber killed 17 people.
He was reportedly a Palestinian who had obtained an Israeli identity card through marriage.
The regulation meant that married couples where one partner is Israeli and the other Palestinian could no longer live together legally in Israel.
It mainly affects Arab couples and has been renewed every year since.
Tuesday marks the end of its validity.
In 2012, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected lawsuits against it.
According to an amendment to the law from 2005, women over 25 and men over 35 are allowed to apply for temporary residence permits.
According to the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), about 1,000 applications for family reunification are submitted annually. Last year, there were reportedly about 13,000 Palestinians in Israel who had received temporary residency permits under the family reunification provisions.
Authorities are now expecting a ood of new applications. Without the regulation, each individual case will have
to be examined in the future and reasons given for a rejection, which can be appealed.
Since 2007, the restriction has also applied to citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Israel’s Foreign Minister air Lapid said on Monday that the essence of the law was to “ensure the Jewish majority in the state of Israel.” Without it, Israel’s security would clearly be at risk, according to the assessment of the domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet, Lapid said.
Human rights organis ation Adalah welcomed the result of the vote on Tuesday, expressing the hope that the Israeli government would now review relevant family reunification requests “with fair, factual and prompt consideration” and that Palestinians would be able to “fully exercise their fundamental right to family life.”
The Tuesday vote came some three weeks after the new government under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was sworn in.
It is a coalition of left and right-wing parties and an Arab party.
The establishment of the coalition ended a long-running political crisis in Israel, which saw four elections in two years.
Lawmakers from two coalition partners, the left-wing Meretz party and the conservative Islamic Raam party, had declared their intention to vote against the controversial law for reasons of conviction before the vote.
Bennett then declared the last-minute vote to be a vote of confidence in the government. As a result, Meretz lawmakers and two Raam lawmakers ultimately voted in favour of the move after a compromise was reached.
Right-leaning opposition lawmakers, including former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, voted against the bill, even though his government had extended the restriction every year during his 12 years in office.
Ahead of the vote, Netanyahu wrote on Twitter that the new government “had made its bed so it has to lie in it.”