Married couples where one partner is Israeli and the other Palestinian are not legally allowed to live together in Israel because of a law. The ban is controversial – and has now been extended again.
Israel has reintroduced a controversial law banning Palestinians from immigrating – even if they are married to an Israeli citizen.
The law was finally approved by a 45-15 vote in Parliament in Jerusalem on Thursday.
As reported by Israeli radio, the law not only refers to security concerns, but also to maintaining a Jewish majority in Israel. The opposition Arab MP Ahmed Tibi condemned the law as “racist”.
In July, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s young government failed to extend the law. The regulation was officially suspended. According to media reports, Interior Minister Ajelet Shaked from the ultra-right Jamina party nevertheless blocked family reunifications between Israelis and Palestinians.
In 2003, the Israeli parliament passed a law according to which Palestinians and residents of “enemy countries” cannot acquire Israeli citizenship or residence permits even through marriage. According to Israel, the trigger for the decision was a suicide attack in Haifa in March 2002, in which the assassin killed 17 people. He was said to be a Palestinian who had received an Israeli identity card through marriage.
As a result of the regulation, married couples in which one partner is Israeli and the other is Palestinian could no longer legally live together in Israel. This regulation primarily affects Arab couples and has been extended every year until 2021.
According to the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), around 1,000 applications for family reunification are submitted each year. In 2020, there were around 13,000 Palestinians in Israel who had received residence permits as part of family reunification.
Source: Stern
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