Israeli Vote on Citizenship for Palestinians Tests New Government
TEL AVIV—Israel’s parliament remained deadlocked late Monday over a temporary law that bars citizenship for Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza who are married to Israelis, the latest issue to challenge the new fragile coalition government.
The law, which was first enacted in 2003 and has since been renewed every year, expires Tuesday at midnight. Lawmakers were debating the law before a vote, which was likely to take place in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Israel’s left-wing and Arab lawmakers, including many in the current government, say the law discriminates against the country’s Arab minority. The right-wing parties, including that of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, say the measure is needed to maintain security and preserve Israel’s Jewish character.
Opposition leader former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement said his Likud party, which for years backed the law on security grounds, wouldn’t support the vote. He argued that it was more important to frustrate the current government “that relies on anti-Zionist elements that oppose Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”
Mr. Bennett on Monday accused the opposition of choosing political maneuvering over state security.
“There are things we don’t play with. National security is a red line and the country needs control over who enters it and who becomes a citizen,” he said in a statement.
If the vote fails, it could open the door for tens of thousands of Palestinians who are married to Israelis, mostly Arab citizens, to seek permanent residency and citizenship.
It would also mark the first major setback for the new ruling coalition, which has said it is aiming to avoid trying to solve major pre-existing issues and instead focus on improving the everyday lives of Israeli citizens. It is made up of eight parties considered left- and right-wing and includes the first independent Arab faction in government.
“The opposition will use it to demonstrate that the coalition is a failure,” said Gideon Rahat, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based think tank. “But in essence the government can continue to govern. That’s the bottom line.”
In its first few weeks, the government has faced some difficult obstacles. Last week, it reached a deal to legalize an unauthorized settlement in the occupied West Bank, possibly within months, if the land is found not to belong to Palestinians. That agreement was viewed as a compromise that appeased the coalition’s right-wing parties while forcing an evacuation that placated the left-wing factions.
First introduced as a temporary measure during a Palestinian uprising that saw attacks against Israelis, its proponents say the citizenship bill is essential to protect Israel from militants they fear could seek to infiltrate the country by marrying an Israeli citizen.
Arik Barbing, the former head of the Jerusalem and West Bank divisions at Israel’s internal security service, said that in 2003 there was a real need to prevent Palestinian militant groups from taking advantage of family unification. But today, he said, with fewer Palestinian attacks against Israelis and an improvement in intelligence gathering, the law is no longer required.
“We’re in a different situation in 2021,” he said. “The issue is demography.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid tweeted Monday that the law is “designed to ensure a Jewish majority in the state of Israel” and significant for the country’s security.
In recent weeks, the new government nixed planned votes on the law as the Arab faction and the left-wing parties indicated they would vote against it. Right-wing coalition members have met in recent weeks with partners who oppose the bill to find a compromise. Those efforts continued late into the night Monday.
A failure to renew the law isn’t expected to change the lives of Palestinians practically in the short term. Israel will still be able to refuse individual citizenship applications from Palestinians at an administrative level, rather than via legislation, analysts said.
The law has affected tens of thousands of families in Israel and the West Bank, preventing Palestinians from legally moving to join their spouses, according to the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, a nongovernmental organization.
For 47-year-old Taiseer Khatib, the failure of the law’s passing could end more than a decade of frustration and uncertainty. The Arab citizen of Israel married his Palestinian wife, Lana, in 2005 and has had to renew a permit annually to ensure she can live in Israel with him and their three children in the northern city of Acre.
“It is a very cruel system of controlling people’s lives,” he said.
