Court Expected to Nix Law that Keeps Arabs from Flooding Israel
(IsraelNN.com) The Israeli High Court will convene Sunday to discuss a petition jointly submitted by Adalah (The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel), former Knesset Member Zahava Gal-On and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) to strike down the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order), enacted by the Knesset in 2003.
The law was passed in order to stem the flood of "Palestinian" Arabs who entered Israel from Judea, Samaria, Gaza and from enemy Arab countries and received Israeli citizenship by marrying Arabs who already possessed Israeli citizenship.
The High Court has heard the appeal against the law in the past and struck it down by a one-vote margin. On Sunday, however, the High Court will convene in a seven-member panel headed by Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch to hear the petition again, and this time it is expected to rule in favor of striking down the law.
According to grassroots Zionist activism group Im Tirtzu, "between 1993 and 2003, 130,000 Palestinians who had lived in enemy Arab countries and in Judea and Samaria received Israeli citizenship through marriage with Israeli Arabs. By making use of the Israeli law which had allowed the granting of citizenship to Arabs who marry Israeli citizens, the Palestinians succeeded in meaningfully changing the demographic balance within Israel and to begin implementing their demand for the return of refugees into Israel."
The Knesset law that prevents this was passed as a temporary order in 2003 and is extended annually by the Knesset. It prevents Arabs from Judea, Samaria and Gaza, as well as citizens of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran, from receiving Israeli citizenship by marrying Israeli citizens.
According to demographic expert Arnon Sofer, if the court annuls the law, hundreds of thousands of Arabs within the Middle East will marry family members in Israel and gradually erase the Jewish majority in Israel.
Im Tirzu is holding a demonstration outside the Supreme Court building in Jerusalem at 9:00 a.m. Sunday. Information (in Hebrew) on the demonstration and contact details can be viewed here.
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