Israel blocks law that excludes Palestinian spouses

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JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel’s parliament did not renew a law on Tuesday morning banning Arab citizens from extending citizenship or residency rights to spouses in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, in a close vote that raised doubts about the viability of the country’s new coalition government.

The 59-59 vote, which came after an all-night sitting in the Knesset, marked a major setback for Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

The new Israeli leader, who had hoped to find a compromise between his radical Yamina party and the conciliatory factions of his disparate coalition, instead suffered a crushing defeat in a vote he would have called a referendum on the new government. The vote means the law is now due to expire at midnight Tuesday.

“Last night the opposition dealt a direct blow to the security of the country,” Bennett said on Tuesday, accusing his opponents, including former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of prioritizing “petty politics” over the welfare of the nation. nation.

The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law was enacted as a temporary measure in 2003, at the height of the Second Intifada, or uprising, when Palestinians launched dozens of deadly attacks inside. Israel. Supporters said Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza were susceptible to recruitment by armed groups and that security checks alone were insufficient.

Under it, Arab citizens, who make up one-fifth of Israel’s population, have had little or no opportunity to bring spouses from the West Bank and Gaza to Israel. Critics, including many left-wing and Arab lawmakers, say it is a racist measure aimed at restraining the growth of Israel’s Arab minority, while supporters say it is necessary for security purposes and to preserve Israel’s Jewish character.

The law has been renewed every year and appears to have the support of a large majority in parliament, which is dominated by hard-line nationalist parties. But Netanyahu’s Likud party and its allies decided to oppose it in order to embarrass Bennett and undermine his coalition, which includes an ensemble of eight parties from all political backgrounds, including a small Islamist Arab party.

Home Secretary Ayelet Shaked, a member of Bennett’s Yamina party, said the opposition’s decision to block the renewal of the law would lead to thousands of additional citizenship applications. She accused Netanyahu and his allies of choosing “a petty and ugly policy and letting the country burn.”

Amichai Chikli, a renegade Yamina member who voted with the opposition, said the result was a sign of deeper problems.

“Israel needs a functioning Zionist government, not a mismatched patchwork that depends” on the votes of Arab lawmakers, Chikli said. He was the only member of his party to oppose the new coalition government last month.

Netanyahu, ousted by the new coalition after 12 years as prime minister, has made his political goals clear.

“With all due respect to this law, the importance of overthrowing the government is greater,” Netanyahu said on Monday.

Bennett reportedly proposed a compromise with liberal coalition members that would have extended the law by six months while offering residency rights to some 1,600 Arab families, a fraction of those affected. But the measure was rejected, in part because two Arab members of the coalition abstained. The vote revealed the deep divisions and fragility of the new government.

The decision, however, gave some hope to Arab families who have been affected by the law. The law has created a series of hardships for thousands of Palestinian families that span the war-drawn and largely invisible borders separating Israel from East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, territories it seized during the the 1967 war and what the Palestinians want for a future state. .

“You want your safety, that’s no problem, you can check each case for yourself,” said Taiseer Khatib, an Arab citizen of Israel whose wife, over 15, is from the city. West Bank of Jenin, must regularly apply for permits to live with him and their three children in Israel.

“There is no need for this collective punishment just because you are Palestinian,” he said during a protest outside the Knesset on Monday before the vote.

The law has been continually renewed even after the uprising ended in 2005 and the number of attacks plummeted. Today, Israel allows more than 100,000 Palestinian workers from the West Bank to enter regularly.

Male spouses over 35 and female spouses over 25, as well as certain humanitarian cases, can apply for the equivalent of a tourist card, which must be renewed regularly. Holders of these licenses are not eligible for driver’s licenses, public health insurance, and most forms of employment. Palestinian wives in Gaza have been banned completely since the militant group Hamas took power there in 2007.

The law does not apply to the approximately 500,000 Jewish settlers who live in the West Bank and who have full Israeli citizenship. Under Israeli law of return, Jews who come to Israel from anywhere in the world are eligible for citizenship.

Israel’s Arab minority has close family ties with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and largely identifies with their cause. Arab citizens see the law as one of the many forms of discrimination they face in a country that legally defines itself as a Jewish nation state.

Palestinians who cannot obtain permits but try to live with their spouse inside Israel risk deportation. Couples who move to the West Bank live under Israeli military occupation.

The citizenship law also applies to Jewish Israelis who marry Palestinians in the territories, but such unions are extremely rare.

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