The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel filed a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court on Sunday, in its own name and on behalf of three Palestinian families, against the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order) – 2022 adopted by the Israeli Knesset on March 10, 2022, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
The petition demands that the law be revoked, as it is discriminatory on its face, violates fundamental constitutional rights and is contrary to international law.
Israel’s parliament has renewed a temporary law dating back to 2003 that bars Israeli citizens from extending citizenship or even residency to Palestinian spouses from the occupied West Bank and Gaza. https://t.co/wLdvYgol5R
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 13, 2022
The ban on Palestinian family unification affects thousands of Palestinian families and tens of thousands of people. It bars citizens and residents of Israel from marrying Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, as well as citizens of so-called enemy states – Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq – and living together in Israel.
It overwhelmingly affects the citizenship status and family life of Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinian residents of Jerusalem.
Israel’s citizenship law is racist, effectively discriminates against Palestinian citizens making clear that Israel’s isn’t a state for all its citizens, separating 1000s of non-Jewish families. A victory for Lapid and everyone who voted in favor of the “Jewish state” #Apartheid.
— Sami Abou Shahadeh (@ShahadehAbou) March 10, 2022
The new law adopted by the Israeli Knesset incorporates provisions from an earlier Temporary Order, initially enacted in 2003 for a period of one year. The Knesset has extended the prior law 21 times over the last 18 years. However, on July 6, 2021, the law expired, after the Knesset failed to achieve the majority required to extend it due to competing political factions.
The petitioners argued that the new 2022 Law (Temporary Order) makes it explicitly clear that the law’s primary purpose is demographic, as Adalah had also argued in its previous petitions against it.
(WAFA, PC, Social Media)
