Palestinians married to Israelis lose residency

JERUSALEM: 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. 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.

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.

Abeer Baker, a lawyer for the Adalah organisation 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.”