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Detail - Discriminatory Immigration & Citizenship Laws in Israel

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• Jewish people are given automatic citizenship in Israel.
• But gaining Israeli citizenship by Arabs is made more difficult.
• In addition, those Arabs who fled the area that became Israel during the 1948 war, and then fled the areas Israel occupied during the 1967 war, were then forbidden re-entry, and their property and possessions were taken by the government and often redistributed to Israelis who had just immigrated to the country. Forbidding people returning to their homes is a violation of a basic principle of international humanitarian law.
• Also, all Israelis are required to carry identification papers. But these papers list on them the nationality of origin of the person, which for the Israeli Arab Citizen would mean Palestinian citizenship. This then is used as a criteria for practicing discrimination against them by government employees in the provision of government services.

Efforts to correct this have been unsuccessful. The most telling effort was the effort by equal rights activists to have their nationality of origin listed as “Israeli”, but this was forbidden even for native born Jewish-Israelis, because the government realizes that this might then set a precedent which could be used by Israeli Arabs.

• And now, spouses of Arab citizens, who reside in the occupied territories, are forbidden from joining their families in Israel, with the passage of the Nationality and Entry into Israel (Temporary Order) Law (2003). This violates international human rights laws which aims to protect the family.

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(c) Israel Law Resource Center, February, 2007.