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Todays News

Court Orders State to Explain Why Citizenship Law Won

By Tomer Zarchin (Haaretz)

posted on 05/09/08

The High Court of Justice issued an order Tuesday requiring the state to explain within 60 days why it refuses to overturn the citizenship law, which prevents Palestinians married to Israeli Arabs from gaining Israeli citizenship. …

The state of Israel generally grants citizenship to spouses of Israelis in a gradual process. In the spirit of this process, a similar process was instituted for the naturalization of spouses of permanent residents … A 2002 temporary order excluded Palestinian spouses from these processes and barred them from becoming Israeli citizens. In May 2006, the High Court rejected numerous petitions asking to overturn the citizenship law. However, most of the justices wrote that the law constitutes a violation of basic rights, mainly the right to a family life.

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