The Knesset approved a first reading of a law barring Palestinians married to citizens from receiving permits to live in Israel on Monday night after a stormy parliamentary session.  The bill sponsored by Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked passed 44-5. The five opponents were the lawmakers of the Joint List.

In a rare showing of cooperation and due to the coalition’s razor-thin majority in the Knesset, right-wing parties in the government enlisted right-wing and fascists parties in the opposition to support Shaked’s bill. In return, the conservative MKs in the coalition backed Rothman’s versions of the bill as well. Meretz, Islamist Ra’am party with some from Labor party who oppose the bill, leave the Knesset chamber during the vote to allow its easy passage The citizenship law expired in July in an early embarrassment for the fledgling coalition and is once again.

People hold a protest against the ‘Citizenship Law’ outside the Knesset on June 29, 2021 (Photo: Al-Ittihad)

“The family reunification law has nothing to do with security. It is related to demography, because Israel, since the Nakba and its aftermath wants to preserve a Jewish majority, and that is the basis for this racist law,” MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash – Joint List) told Al-Ittihad in an interview.

Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=28298