The Supreme Court has issued an order nisi to the Knesset and government authorities, demanding their explanations for why the ban on Palestinian family unification should not be canceled

Following a hearing held yesterday (Monday, 8 July 2024), the Supreme Court issued an order nisi, today (9 July 2024), in relation to nine petitions filed to it against the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order), 2022. The law effectively bans the unification of Palestinian families in Israel, where one spouse is an Israeli citizen or a permanent resident (in practice all of those affected are Palestinian citizens and residents) and the other a resident of the OPT (excluding Jewish settlers living in the OPT). It also bans unification with spouses from certain Israeli-designated “enemy states”, including Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran.

CLICK HERE to read more about Adalah’s petition

The Israeli Supreme Court has ordered the state to explain why it should not repeal the Temporary order. The respondents must provide this explanation by 2 December 2024. 

The order nisi (order to show cause) shifts the burden of proof to the state, requiring it to justify the legality of the law, given that, among other things, the law prevents Palestinian partners from the West Bank or Gaza who have resided in Israel long-term with residence permits from gaining citizenship or permanent residency, denies them social benefits, and sets an arbitrary quota for granting permits in exceptional humanitarian cases.

CLICK HERE to read the court’s order

Yesterday's hearing was the second held on petitions against the law. During the hearing, the respondents were asked to indicate their willingness to make minor changes to the legislation in order to address some of the issues raised in several petitions. These included a possible amendment of the definition of "resident of the area" in Section 2 of the law, to exclude from the ban individuals who are registered in the Palestinian Authority’s population registry but are not residents of the West Bank, and the inclusion of same-sex couples in the section authorizing the Interior Minister to make exceptions to prevent separation from their partners who are legal residents in Israel. During the hearing, the respondents made clear that they were not willing to make substantial changes and insisted on the current provisions. Adalah has consistently argued before the Supreme Court that no changes or additional amendments can make the law compliant with fundamental rights. The law's sweeping and arbitrary provisions serve a demographic purpose that Adalah contends is racist, creating a form of apartheid in citizenship. Therefore, the law must be struck down in its entirety.

Adalah commented:

"Israel’s Supreme Court, in highlighting several flaws in the law, clearly indicates that the government and the Knesset have failed to justify the law's purported security justification, exposing, once again, its true racist demographic purpose. Israel has maintained this oppressive ban for over 20 years under false security pretexts, and it is unmistakably an apartheid policy. We can only hope that the Supreme Court will depart from its previous rulings to uphold the ban, which has arbitrarily violated the fundamental right of Palestinians to family life. Its failure to repeal the law entirely would equate to its endorsement of apartheid in citizenship.”