Knesset Approves Request to Extend Citizenship and Entry Law by a Year

By Aryeh Stern

On Monday, the Knesset voted to approve the government’s request to extend by an order, by one year, the validity of the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law. In the vote, 26 MKs supported the approval of the request, versus six opposing votes.

Earlier on Monday, a joint committee of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee, chaired by MK Shalom Danino (Likud), voted to approve the Government’s request to approve the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Order, stipulating that the law would be extended until March 14, 2025. In the vote, three MKs voted in favor and one against, and the order was turned over to the Knesset Plenum for approval.

The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law was first enacted in 2003, during the second Intifada period. It established provisions restricting the interior minister from granting citizenship and residency licenses in Israel in cases of family reunification, as well as restrictions on the issuing of stay permits in cases of family reunification, and on permits issued under security legislation.

These arrangements were put in place after security agencies warned that Palestinians who were originally from Yehudah, Shomron and Gaza, and carried Israeli ID cards due family reunification that allowed them to move freely between Palestinian Authority territories and Israel, became increasingly involved in the dozens of suicide terrorist attacks that were carried out at the time.

The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law includes a mechanism that allows the extension of the law’s validity by a government order, with the approval of the Knesset, for a period that does not exceed one year. In 2015, in order to allow a more thorough discussion on the request to extend the validity of the law, the Knesset decided to approve the House Committee’s recommendation that prior to the presentation of the order for the approval of the Knesset Plenum, it would first be discussed by a joint committee of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee, which would submit its recommendations to the Knesset Plenum.

The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law establishes the principle that the interior minister will not grant citizenship or a residency license in Israel to a resident of the [Yehudah, Shomron and Gaza] region or to a resident or citizen of Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. The law also stipulates that the commander of the region will not be entitled to grant a stay permit in Israel for a resident of the Yehudah and Shomron and Gaza region.

However, the law defines exceptions and qualifications to the prohibition on granting citizenship, a residency permit, or a stay permit in Israel — permits for spouses and children, permits for special humanitarian cases, permits for the purpose of medical treatment, work, or for a temporary purpose not to exceed six months, and special permits.

Officials from the Population and Immigration Authority, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), and the police told the committee members on Monday that the security conditions still applied, certainly since Oct. 7.

MK Danino, chair of the joint committee, said in summation: “I will request from the interior minister to enshrine the temporary provision as a permanent law. We as a state need to build up Israel’s immigration policy, establish principles and formulate it, and until then we have to vote on an extension every year.”