Nearly 800 mixed Israeli and Palestinian families in the past 30 days have filed for family unification with the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority despite the Interior Ministry’s refusal to process the requests as officials wait to see if Interior Ministry Ayelet Shaked will try to renew the so-called Palestinian family reunification law that bans Palestinians from obtaining Israeli residency through marriage to Israelis, reports Haaretz.
The agency has also received 2,000 Palestinian requests to upgrade their temporary residency permits to full citizenship since the law expired one month ago, Shaked told the news outlet.
"This is the damage caused in one month [because] the law wasn't passed," the minister said.
"The opposition made a terrible mistake with the Citizenship Law," she told Israel Radio. "This vote by Likud, the ultra-Orthodox parties and the Religious Zionists against the Citizenship Law is to me a vote against the State of Israel. A disaster [like this] had never occurred before, in which Zionist opposition parties voted against this law."
Shaked ordered ministry workers not to process any requests by Palestinians after the ban expired and has privately said that she will refuse each individual case until new restrictions are passed.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said the law “is one of the tools designed to ensure a Jewish majority in the State of Israel, which should not be hidden in its essence.”
Enacted in 2003, the order does not allow Palestinians to receive citizenship, but at most to receive a residency permit in Israel. It also does not allow for Palestinian men under the age of 35 and Palestinian women under the age of 25 to request a family unification.
The Immigration and Population Authority receives an average of 1,000 reunification requests annually.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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