Israel to vote on renewing law that keeps out Palestinian spouses

Law bars Palestinian citizens of Israel from extending citizenship to spouses from occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Israel’s parliament is set to vote on Monday on whether to renew a temporary law first enacted in 2003 that bars Palestinian citizens of Israel from extending citizenship or even residency to spouses from the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Critics, including many left-wing and Palestinian Israeli legislators, say it is a racist measure aimed at restricting the growth of Israel’s Palestinian minority, while supporters say it is needed for security purposes and to preserve Israel’s Jewish character. The law creates an array of difficulties for Palestinian families that span the largely invisible frontiers separating Israel from the occupied territories of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip – territories it seized in the 1967 war that the Palestinian leadership wants for a future state.