Israel: New government loses vote

It was the first real test for Israel’s new government with its eight-party alliance. A controversial vote with very different positions. The government failed with their application.

Around three weeks after they were sworn in, Israel’s new government lost its first important vote. It was about the immigration ban for Palestinians, even if they are married to an Israeli citizen. In the vote on an extension of the relevant law, the eight-party coalition missed a majority in parliament.

59 out of 120 MPs voted for and 59 against the controversial citizenship law. Two abstained. Small consolation for the new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett: The opposition turned the vote into a vote of no confidence. 59 to 59 means: Here too there was no majority. The government can continue for the time being.

Law must be renewed every year

The Citizenship Act dates from 2003. Because it encroaches on fundamental rights, it has to be confirmed annually. It prohibits many Palestinians and residents of “hostile countries” from living in Israel, even if they are married to Israeli citizens. According to Israel, the law is about security, but also about keeping the influx of Palestinians low so that the Jewish majority of the state is secured.

According to Israeli sources, the trigger for the regulation was a suicide attack in Haifa in March 2002, in which the assassin killed 17 people. He was said to be a Palestinian who had received an Israeli identity card through marriage. As a result of the regulation, married couples where one partner is Israeli and the other is Palestinian could no longer legally live together in Israel. This regulation, which is justified with Israeli security interests, mainly affects Arab couples and has been extended every year since then. Their validity ends today.

Actually, a compromise had been found

Two parties in the new government coalition rejected the law because it was discriminatory. Still, the coalition had actually found a compromise. But two MPs from the Arab Ra’am party abstained. The government lacked these voices. How it will proceed now – with the law and with the new government – is open for the time being.

According to the Israel Institute for Democracy (IDI), around 1,000 family reunification applications are submitted each year. Last year, there were reportedly around 13,000 Palestinians in Israel who had been granted residence permits as part of family reunification. In 2012, Israel’s highest court dismissed lawsuits against the regulation.

Permanent political crisis in Israel

According to an amendment to the law in 2005, women over 25 and men over 35 years of age can apply for temporary residence permits, as can minors. Since 2007, the legal restrictions also apply to citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

Israel’s new coalition under Bennett was sworn in in mid-June. It consists of left and right parties and an Arab party. With its establishment, the permanent political crisis in Israel came to a temporary end with four elections within two years.

With information from Benjamin Hammer, ARD correspondent in Tel Aviv