Jerusalem: Israel’s parliament issued a temporary law dating back to 2003 that bars Israeli citizens from developing citizenship or even residency to Palestinian spouses from the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
As per Israel, this law was first passed during a Palestinian uprising, and they passed this law for security. Furthermore, Critics claimed that this racist measure aimed to maintain the country’s Jewish majority. This law is mainly made for Palestinians and does not apply to Jewish settlers in the West Bank as they already have Israeli citizenship.
However, Knesset failed to pass the law last summer, and the reason reported that is because of left-wing and Arab members of the governing coalition. The opposition party leader, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’ supported the law but declined to vote for it to embarrass the government.
According to the Interior Minister’ Ayelet Shaked’, a persistent nationalist, took some major steps to stop family joining during the several months when the law declined while campaigning for its renewal. She and other officials have acknowledged it is in part aimed at preserving Israel’s Jewish majority.
They passed the new law last Thursday. They took help from the leader of the opposition party but without the left-wing Meretz and the United Arab List, an Arab party that made history by joining the governing coalition in 2021.
In his Tweet, Shaked stated that the bill’s passage was a victory for a Jewish and democratic state and a defeat for a state for all its citizens. The latter phrase is usually used by Israel’s Arab minority to refer to their aspirations for equality.
Ayman Odeh, an Arab lawmaker, retweeted Shaked, calling it a victory for” an apartheid state.”
The law mainly affected the minority of Arab citizens, which accounts for 20 percent of Israel’s population of 9.5 million, and some have close family ties to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. They have citizenship, including the right to vote, and have earned approval and influence in several spheres, but still face widespread discrimination.
As per the Isreal law of Return, Jews who come to Israel from anywhere in the world are eligible for Citizenship.