Ban on Family Unification

On 31 July 2003, at the height of the Second Intifada, the Knesset enacted the Nationality and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order) – 2003. The law froze “family reunification,” the process by which a Palestinian from the West Bank or Gaza Strip married to an Israeli citizen could obtain residency and eventually citizenship in Israel. Framed as a one-year emergency measure, it has been renewed or re-enacted almost continuously since — with only minor amendments, such as discretionary “humanitarian exceptions” and age limits — briefly lapsing in 2021 before being legislated again in 2022.

The burden falls overwhelmingly on Palestinian citizens of Israel, since they are the Israelis who marry Palestinians from the occupied territory; the general rules for all other foreign spouses remain unchanged. Thousands of couples have been forced to choose between living apart, living together without legal status under constant threat of deportation, or leaving Israel altogether. Adalah describes it as one of the most discriminatory laws in Israel, without parallel in any democratic state. Israel’s Supreme Court upheld it in 2006 and again in 2022, accepting the state’s argument that it responds to security concerns.

Israel’s governments have justified the law on security grounds, citing cases in which naturalized Palestinian spouses were involved in attacks. Critics — including Adalah, B’Tselem, and UN treaty bodies — answer that the law applies solely on the basis of national belonging, collectively punishing an entire ethnic group, and that its demographic effect is an openly discussed motivation: the law’s defenders have at times described it as a means of limiting the growth of Israel’s Palestinian population.

Sources

• The Nationality and Entry into Israel Law — Adalah
• Family Separation — B’Tselem