Israel court to hear Citizenship Law challenge

Ma'an
The Israeli High Court of Justice will soon hear a challenge to a law which prohibits Palestinians with Israeli citizenship from bringing in spouses from the occupied territories and countries deemed "enemy states" by the Israeli government.

A petition was filed in 2007 by Adalah, the legal center for the Palestinian minority in Israel, and other human rights groups, contesting the Citizenship Law. In March 2009, the High Court held a hearing based on the petition and, in the run-up, Adalah submitted three expert legal opinions by lawyers and legal scholars from the UK, South Africa and the Open Society Justice Initiative, which deemed the Citizenship Law a violation of the right to family life, discriminatory, and unconstitutional, a statement by the legal center read.

During the hearing, the Attorney General's Office acknowledged that the law causes harm to thousands of innocent Palestinians who "do not constitute a security threat," but justified it on the grounds that Israel is unable to determine which Palestinians pose a security threat and which do not, Adalah wrote.

Adalah's attornies Hassan Jabareen and Sawsan Zaher argued in the petition that "The Citizenship Law is the most racist law in Israel and has no parallel in any democratic state in the world. The Citizenship Law imposes severe restrictions on the citizenship rights of the Arab minority in Israel: Members of the Arab minority cannot live with their families in their country, and are liable to lose their citizenship if they decide to live with their spouses in 'enemy states.'"

The law was enacted in July 2003. Although it was defined as a "temporary order," it has been extended and expanded repeatedly. In 2007, the scope of the law was expanded to include all residents or citizens of Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, defined by Israel as "enemy states" in addition to Palestinians from the occupied territories.  Full story