ACRI wishes to express grave concern over the verdict issued today by the High Court of Justice, which upheld the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law and ruled against a number of petitions submitted by ACRI, Adalah and members of Knesset challenging the law.
The decision not to revoke the law, which denies any possibility of formal residency status being granted to Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza who are married to Israeli citizens or residents, is not only blatantly racist, but also undermines the basic tenets of a democratic state by violating the basic right of the state’‘s civilian population to equality in general, and the right to family life to Palestinian citizens of Israel in particular.
The verdict that was delivered by a narrow 6-5 majority in an expanded panel of 11 justices, was based on unsubstantiated security claims that were presented to the Court by the State, which when broken down to numerical data proved to be completely devoid of any evidentiary basis. It is also a tragic blow to the hundreds of families waiting for the issue’‘s resolution as the only means by which to end their forced separation. ACRI further notes that, even if the State does believe that a particular individual represents a security threat, it has the required legal tools at its disposal to investigate and act against him/her if necessary. It does not, therefore, need to utilize such a sweeping and illegitimate form of collective punishment that drags an entire population sector into its net as a means of filtering out a few individuals.
Although the Court recognized the inherent rights violations represented by the law and a majority of the justices viewed these infringements as “disproportionate”, the Court still refused to revoke the law as unconstitutional.
The fundamental nature of the law’‘s inherent rights violations is most effectively reflected by a statement made by ACRI’‘s Chief Legal Counsel, Dan Yakir, who stated that, “this is a sad day for Israeli democracy. If the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty does not defend such basic rights as the right to family life and equality, then one must question what rights it is capable of defending.”
last updated : 17/05/06
