TV: Compromise emerging to extend Palestinian family reunification law

A compromise is emerging to extend legislation preventing Palestinians who marry Israelis from automatically getting citizenship, Israeli television reported Friday, as the coalition struggles to muster a majority among its disparate factions to back the law.

Under the compromise proposal, the “family reunification law” will not be changed and hundreds of Palestinians who married Israelis before the legislation was first approved in 2003 will receive residency but not citizenship, according to Channel 12 news.

The network, which did not cite a source, said the Islamist Ra’am party would abstain rather than voting to extend the law. A Ra’am MK said earlier this week that the Islamist party would vote against the legislation — which he denounced as “racist and anti-democratic” — if it comes up for a plenum vote.

However, even if Ra’am were to abstain, the rest of the 61-seat coalition would still be outnumbered by opposition MKs.

Furthermore, several left-wing coalition lawmakers have said they will oppose extending the law. The TV report did not say whether the proposal would be acceptable to them.

Yamina MK Idit Silman, the coalition whip, said Thursday the law would be voted on next week even though it remains unclear whether a majority of lawmakers will back the extension.

“I’m confident the right-wing opposition in the State of Israel that defines itself as right-wing nationalist will support this law,” she told the Ynet news site.

Most opposition lawmakers back the legislation in principle, but many have indicated that they will nevertheless vote against it to undermine and embarrass the new coalition.

Also Thursday, Meretz Minister Issawi Frej said he would the oppose law even if he were to lose the Regional Cooperation Ministry and Labor MK Ibtisam Mara’ana reiterated her opposition to the legislation in its current form, denouncing it as “racist and discriminatory.”

“For Jews [family reunification] is allowed but for Arabs it’s forbidden. With laws like these… the Jews are a supreme race. There is no connection to Israel’s security,” Mara’ana said in an interview with the Kan public broadcaster.

The battle over extending the Palestinian family reunification law is testing the new coalition composed of right-wing, centrist and left-wing parties and Ra’am. The vote on extending the law was pulled Sunday from the agenda for the next day, with the coalition apparently unable to muster a majority to pass the measure.

The coalition has accused former premier Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies of “playing with the country’s security” by “putting political considerations before the security interest of the citizens of the State of Israel.”

Family reunification in Israel typically involves an Israeli citizen requesting citizenship for his or her non-Israeli spouse. Most unification applications are submitted by Arab Israelis on behalf of a Palestinian spouse living in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.

But the 2003 measure, passed due to concerns that it was being abused by members of terror groups to gain access to Israel, put limits on the process, making it harder for Palestinians to gain Israeli citizenship or residency through marriage. The controversial law has been extended every year since, usually with strong backing from Likud and other right-wing parties.

The current legislation expires July 6.