The Israeli Knesset (Parliament) approved, on Monday evening, a first reading of the “citizenship bill” that prevents the unification of Palestinian families.
It is prohibited to grant residency or citizenship to Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, who are married to a “Palestinian 48”.
The bill requires a vote of three readings to become an effective law.
The bill was submitted by Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked (the Yamina party), and it prohibits granting residency or citizenship to Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, who are married to a “48 Palestinian”.
Forty-four Knesset members (out of 120) voted for the bill, while 5 voted against it, according to the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
The government coalition voted on the controversial bill, with the exception of Meretz (left) and the United Arab List.
The religious parties from the opposition were scheduled to vote on the “Shaked” project, but Ahmed Al-Tibi, the Arab representative of the Joint List (a coalition of 3 Arab parties), submitted minutes before the vote, a request to convert the vote on the “citizenship” law into a vote of no confidence in the government.
In light of this, the religious parties of the opposition did not participate in the vote, in order to avoid supporting the government on the one hand, and allowing the passage of the law on the other.
Some members of the Knesset from the Labor Party (centre) withdrew from the vote.
For his part, “Mossi Raz”, a Knesset member from the “Meretz” party, said: “We support the government and oppose the Citizenship Law.”
He added: “As soon as the vote turned into a motion of no-confidence (from the government), we went out. We will not vote for a racist law, and we will not vote for no-confidence in the government.”
For her part, Minister Shaked, in a tweet on Twitter after the vote, considered that Zionism had “victorious”, vowing to pass it in the second and third readings.
In turn, Arab MP Sami Abu Shehadeh (Joint List) said: “The talk here is not about a citizenship law, but rather a law banning citizenship from Arabs.”
And he considered that “any method of beautification cannot hide the racist filth accompanying this law or the racist mentality that pushed it.”
It is noteworthy that the Knesset had enacted a “citizenship” law on July 31, 2003 (temporarily), to punish Palestinians inside Israel for their participation in the Al-Aqsa Intifada (2000).
Since then, the Knesset has extended its validity several times, although it was originally enacted as a temporary law for one year.
In July 2021, the law effectively fell after the government coalition led by Naftali Bennett failed to extend it, when it was unable to obtain a sufficient majority to pass it in the Knesset.
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