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[igotthisguitar]

Palestinians married to Israelis lose residency battle
Sun May 14, 07:44 AM EST

By Corinne Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's High Court on Sunday narrowly upheld a law that denies Israeli residency to many Palestinians who marry Israelis, rejecting appeals against a statute critics condemned as a violation of human rights.

The restrictions, an amendment to Israel's Citizenship Law, affect thousands of Palestinian and Israeli Arab couples. Marriages between Palestinians and Israeli Jews are rare.

"The Palestinian Authority is an enemy government, a government that wants to destroy the (Jewish) state and is not willing to recognize Israel," Justice Michel Cheshin said in support of the 6-5 ruling against the appeals.

In a dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Aharon Barak said the amendment violated civil rights.

The amended Citizenship Law was passed in 2002 at the height of a Palestinian uprising that began two years earlier.

It stated that only requests for residency by Palestinian women over the age of 25 and men over age 35 were eligible for approval for security reasons. Israeli authorities say Arabs with residence have taken part in terrorist attacks.

Abeer Baker, a lawyer for the Adalah organization that represents Palestinian-Israeli couples vying for Israeli residency, said the law meant that thousands of "mixed" families would either have to separate or live outside Israel.

"The country is basically saying: pack up your stuff and get out of here," she said. "That would mean they would give up their rights in Israel and their historical rights to the land."

[rapier]

Maybe having numerous brutal terrorist attacks by Palestinians every year has something to do with it.

But yeah.. its an unreasonable and unjust law.

[igotthisguitar]