Israel to water down law branded as anti-Arab

1.00pm

JERUSALEM - Israel on Sunday temporarily extended a controversial law denying residency to Palestinians who marry Israelis, a move to give the cabinet time to water down the bill which has been criticised by human rights groups.

Adopted last year and requiring annual renewal by the government, the law denies citizenship or permanent residency to all Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip who are married to Israeli citizens, usually Arabs.

It has made life difficult for Israelis married to Palestinians since their spouses are barred from entering Israel or face deportation for being in the Jewish state illegally.

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz advised the government to alter the law to enable Palestinian spouses over the age of 35 to be naturalised and to generally ease restrictions wherever Palestinians in question have no link with militant violence.

Tourism Minister Gideon Ezra said the government favoured revising the law in line with Mazuz's suggestions, but added the law was essential to prevent militant attacks facilitated by Palestinians holding Israeli identity cards.

"The State of Israel must protect itself. (Otherwise) we are simply being negligent and endangering ourselves," he told Israel Radio.

The bill, condemned by human rights groups as anti-Arab, is under review by Israel's Supreme Court following petitions charging that it violates Israel's unofficial constitution protecting "human dignity and liberty".

It was enacted after a suicide bombing at a cafe in 2002 was found to have been carried out by a Palestinian from the West Bank who was able to freely enter Israel because his mother was an Israeli Arab and he had been issued Israeli travel documents.

Security agencies uncovered 24 incidents where Palestinians with an Israeli parent had used their Israeli identity cards to help West Bank and Gaza-based militants carry out attacks in the Jewish state, Ezra said.

Amnesty International urged the Israeli government recently not to extend the bill when it expires at the end of July.

It said the law explicitly discriminates against Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and implicitly discriminates against Israeli-Arabs.

Amnesty said the law left thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel with two options -- "having their spouses live with them illegally or moving to the West Bank and Gaza".

- REUTERS