Israel Matzav: Citizenship law barely upheld again

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Citizenship law barely upheld again

In 2006, the Supreme Court barely upheld a 2003 amendment to the Citizenship law that temporarily cut off 'family reunification' for 'Palestinians' marrying Israeli Arabs. The reason for the cut off was the use of 'family reunification' to bring terrorists into Israel.

After the ruling was issued, then Chief Justice Aharon Barak (not to be confused with Defense Minister Ehud Barak) wrote an email that ended up being published that claimed that most of the Supreme Court in that case agreed with the minority opinion, which was Barak's opinion.

Fast forward five and a half years. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal against the citizenship law by a 6-5 vote. Like Barak, Chief Justice Dorit Beinish voted with the minority. And like Barak, Beinish is on the verge of retirement.

So do we need to worry that some day the law will not be upheld?

Justices Eliezer Rivlin, Asher Grunis, Miriam Naor, Elyakim Rubinstein, Hanan Meltzer and Neil Handel, who had the majority opinion that the appeal should be rejected, wrote that while they recognize a person’s right to a family, that right need not necessarily be extended to be realized in Israel.

The amendment was approved in 2003 as a temporary provision and has since been extended several times, the last time being in July.

The provision stipulates that the Interior Minister may grant citizenship to an Arab resident of Judea and Samaria only if he is convinced that person recognizes Israel.

“Marrying into Israel” is considered to be one system used by hostile Palestinian Authority Arabs to change Israel’s demographics and to infiltrate the country for nefarious purposes.

JPost adds:

Non-Israelis who marry Israelis must go through a five-year probationary period before receiving citizenship. They receive a temporary visa for one year at a time and must apply to renew it 60 days before the expiration date. Israeli authorities conduct a security check to see whether the applicant has committed security violations during the past year and whether the union is genuine and intact.

According to the temporary law, Palestinians are not eligible for this procedure.
The petitioners demanded that each and every Palestinian who wishes to marry an Israeli and settle in Israel has the right to undergo an individual check by the security services to determine whether they personally pose a security threat. The ban cannot be applied indiscriminately against all Palestinians.

Adalah responded to the High Court rejection of its petition saying that the court approved a law "the likes of which does not exist in any democratic nation in the world."

The organization slammed the law as "forbidding citizens to have a family life in Israel solely on the basis of the ethnic background of one of the spouses."

The statement added: "This ruling proves to what extent the civil rights of the Arab minority in Israel have deteriorated to an unprecedented an extremely dangerous level."

No country is required to grant citizenship to anyone.

Labels: citizenship law, family reunification