MKs pass controversial ‘admissions committees’ law, allowing towns of up to 700 homes to cherry-pick residents

A controversial bill to expand admissions committees into larger Israeli towns passed into law this evening with broad support from legislators across the board.

Admissions committees are panels that screen potential residents in Israeli localities and operate with full discretion as to who they accept or reject to live in a given town. The committees can reject candidates due to their ostensible lack of compatibility with the “sociocultural fabric” of a community.

Sponsored by right-wing MKs Simcha Rothman, Sharren Haskel, and Yitzhak Kreuzer, the bill passed its third reading in a 42-11 vote. All present Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am MKs, in addition to Labor MKs Gilad Kariv and Naama Lazimi, voted against the bill.

Criticized by human rights organizations as a form of housing discrimination against Israel’s Arab citizens, admissions committees have existed in Israel for decades on kibbutzim, moshavim and other “cooperative localities,” however the Knesset only formalized their role in 2011.

The 2011 law stipulated that only localities in the Negev and the Galilee with less than 400 permanent homes could operate admissions committees. This law increases that number to 700 permanent homes.

“We are strengthening the periphery, we are strengthening the State of Israel,” tweeted Otzma Yehudit’s Kreuzer after the law’s passing. “We promised, we held to it.”

Hadash MK Ofer Cassif claimed during the bill’s Knesset debate that in addition to excluding Arab citizens, expanding admissions committees to more towns across the country will harm Mizrahi and Ethiopian Jews, and other disadvantaged groups in Israel.