Israel’s government faced internal divisions on Monday as it sought to renew a controversial ban on its Arab residents and citizens expanding the rights of their Palestinian spouses in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
The measure, first implemented in 2003 during the Second Palestinian Intifada, or insurgency, has been justified by supporters on security grounds, but critics ridicule it as a discriminatory measure targeting Israel’s Arab minority.
The coalition, which counts eight parties from the political spectrum, controls Israel’s 120-member Knesset, or 61 seats in parliament, and cannot defect in trying to pass legislation.
Two coalition parties, the Dovish Meretz and the conservative Islamic Ram Party, have indicated that they will vote against the measure backed by radical religious nationalist Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
The premier called for support from right-wing parties in the opposition, led by his former mentor Benjamin Netanyahu, who was dramatically ousted from power by Bennett last month.
“There are points where, despite everything, the opposition must also show national responsibility,” Bennett said Monday ahead of a vote on the extension.
“There are things you don’t play with: the security of the state is a red line, and the state needs control over who enters and who gets citizenship in it.
“The admission of thousands of Palestinians and giving them (Israeli) citizenship… is absolutely not the right thing to do,” he said.
Netanyahu, who has made it clear that he will seek a return to the premiership office if the coalition breaks down, has refused to help pass the bill.
“You are the government, the responsibility is yours,” he said.
“You cannot form a government that is based on anti-Semitic forces (a reference to Ram) and then come to us and ask us to save us from this fracture and failure,” Netanyahu said.
‘Continuous prison’
The controversial measure has created endless complications for Israel and the Palestinians living in its occupied territories since 1967.
A significant number of those affected formerly live in East Jerusalem and therefore reside in Israel, without being citizens of the Jewish state.
In protests against the measure outside the Knesset on Monday, some pointed to the difficulties of seeking permits to join their spouses, or the risks of entering Israeli territory without permission.
Ali Meteb told AFP that his family was confined in “constant prison” because his wife did not have the right of residence in Israel.
“I am demanding the rights that the state owes us… my wife has an Israeli ID, residency rights and freedom of movement,” he said.
“Thousands of families have been harmed by this law,” said Jessica Montel, head of Hamoked, an Israeli human rights group that provides legal services to Palestinians.
She said the debate was ultimately about whether Israel’s citizens and residents “have the right to marry whomever they choose, without fear of displacement of their families.”
Arguments about security requirements were flawed, he said, because “every person applying for any position in Israel goes through very rigorous security checks.”
“No one is saying that people should be given citizenship freely in Israel without due process,” Montel told the Jerusalem Press Club.
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