According to The Daily Star:
Israel’s Supreme Court upheld a law preventing Palestinians married to Israeli Arabs from obtaining Israeli citizenship, a judicial official said on Wednesday. … In their ruling, the judges emphasised that they “recognise the right to family reunification, which respects human rights” but added that “this right must be limited to Israel.”
A Palestinian who is not a citizen of Israel, who is married to a Palestinian who is a citizen of Israel, will not be eligible for Israeli citizenship. It is not a far stretch, then, to assume that any non-Jewish spouses of non-Jewish Israelis (or perhaps even non-Jewish spouses of Jewish Israelis) will be denied Israeli citizenship. It is unsurprising, given the current trend in Israeli legislation and judicial rulings, that Jewish citizens are given more rights and preferences than non-Jewish citizens.
This has been in place since 2003 as “emergency law” and is only now in the books in its current form. No changes or surprises.
Hey Audrey! So this response is over a month late, but if it means anything I haven’t had a chance to go back up to WP since we did a few runs in the terrain park! Spending break back near Philly though was excellent…and I’ve heard you just got a ton of snow!! …and someone died in an avalanche..??..
Glad to see the blog is still going…and I’m sure you have some good followers. You ever look into water issues and rights between Israel and Palestine?? Besides that my knowledge of the place is very insignificant…
Hey! Water rights are super intense … I actually was at a demonstration last winter whose central issue was access to a freshwater spring (settlement was cutting the village off from their historic access). Actually all resource access issues fall along the same conflict lines. Interesting stuff! This is good I needed something else to write about