The Knesset was set to vote Monday evening on renewing a temporary law that prevents Palestinians married to Israelis from automatically receiving permanent status in Israel, for the first time without a guaranteed majority to pass it.
Some members of the new coalition, including MKs from the left-wing Meretz and Islamist Ra'am parties, have said they will not vote to extend the temporary measure that has been renewed every year since its inception in 2003.
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Coalition and opposition MKs clash in a Knesset committee meeting ahead of the vote on the Citizenship Law on Monday
(Photo: The Knesset)
MKs from former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, which was in power from 2009 until last month, have also said they will not support the renewal of law - in an apparent move to stymie the government that replaced it.
Without support from the opposition, the law will not be renewed ahead of its expiration on Tuesday.
Even so, some coalition MKs struck an optimistic note ahead of the Monday vote, expressing doubt that right-wing opposition lawmakers would let the legislation lapse in the name of political point-scoring.
“I assume that the Zionist parties will vote in favor as an issue of national responsibility,” MK Nir Orbach of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's Yamina party said Monday, according to local media.
Critics, including many left-wing and Arab lawmakers, say it’s a racist measure aimed at restricting the growth of Israel’s Arab minority, while supporters say it’s needed for security purposes and to preserve Israel’s Jewish character.
The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law was enacted as a temporary measure at the height of the second intifada, when Palestinian terror groups launched scores of deadly terror attacks inside Israel.
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The aftermath of a 2002 suicide bus bombing in northern Israel that killed 17 people and wounded dozens more
(Photo: AP)
Proponents of the law say Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza are susceptible to recruitment by armed groups and that security vetting alone is insufficient.
“It was passed in the middle of the intifada, and now we are in a very different period in time,” said Yuval Shany, a legal expert at the Israel Democracy Institute.
Not only are attacks far rarer, he said, but Israel has vastly improved its technological abilities to monitor Palestinians who enter.
“I don’t think the security argument is very strong at this point in time,” said Shany.
Because of the law, Arab citizens have few if any avenues for bringing spouses from the West Bank and Gaza into Israel. The policy affects thousands of families.
Male spouses over the age of 35 and female spouses over the age of 25, as well as some humanitarian cases, can apply for the equivalent of a tourist permit, which must be regularly renewed. The holders of such permits are ineligible for a driver’s license, public health insurance and most forms of employment. Palestinian spouses from Gaza have been completely banned since the Hamas terror group seized power there in 2007.
Israel’s Arab minority, which makes up 20% of the population, has close familial ties to Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and largely identifies with their cause. Arab citizens view the law as one of several forms of discrimination they face in a country that legally defines itself as a Jewish nation-state.
“This law sees every Palestinian as an enemy and as a threat, just because of his ethnic and national affiliation,” said Sawsan Zaher, a lawyer with Adalah, an Arab rights group that has challenged the law in court. “The political message is very racist and very dangerous.”
Palestinians who are unable to get permits but try to live with their spouses inside Israel are at risk of deportation. If their children are born in the West Bank, they would be subject to the same law preventing spouses from entering Israel, though there is an exception for minors.
The citizenship law also applies to Jewish Israelis who marry Palestinians from the territories, but such unions are extremely rare.
But even as Defense Minister Benny Gantz, a political centrist, recently urged the opposition to support the law on security grounds, he also evoked demographic concerns.
“This law is essential for safeguarding the country’s security and Jewish and democratic character, and security considerations need to be put before all political considerations,” Gantz said in a statement.
“Even in difficult times politically, we put Israel before everything.”