In its sitting on Monday, March 4, the Knesset Plenum voted to approve the far-right government’s request to extend by an order, by one year, the validity of the racist Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Provision), 2022. In the vote, 26 Members of Knesset supported the approval of the Government’s request, versus six opposing votes.
For years, Hadash has opposed the legislation, which prevents Palestinians from entering Israel for the purposes of family reunification, as racist violation of fundamental human rights – the right to equality and the right to family. The law affects thousands of Palestinian families comprising tens of thousands of individuals on both sides of the Green Line, preventing Palestinians from the territories from legally residing in Israel to live together with their spouses.
Earlier on Monday, a joint committee of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee, chaired by MK Shalom Danino (Likud), voted to approve the request. In the vote, three MKs voted in favor and one against, Hadash MK Ofer Cassif, and the order was turned over to the Knesset Plenum for approval.
MK Ofer Cassif (second from right) during the joint session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense and Interior committees, March 4, 2024 (Photo: Knesset)
MK Cassif said during the joint session: “This is an anti-democratic and racist law, which has nothing to do with security interests. The main considerations of this law are demographic. The default in every properly-run country—and at the moment, this country is not properly run—is that married people have a vested right to citizenship or residency, and [the state] should check for problems on an individual basis. At the moment, the default is the opposite.”
“The Gaza Strip, and certainly the West Bank, are not enemy territories, these are occupied territories by any objective definition. As the occupying power, the State of Israel has an obligation towards these residents, among other things to enable a proper family life. All the governments, in effect, are violating international law and relying on a racist conception. This is a law that is morally despicable and constitutionally and morally wrong,” said MK Cassif.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=30145
