Palestinians, married to Arab citizens of Israel, can’t live with their spouses in Israel.
The controversial law that prohibited Palestinians married to Israelis to move to Israel was challenged in court recently. With 6 to 5 votes, Israel's high court yesterday rejected the idea that the law violated the civil rights of Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel.
Israel authorities contended that letting young Palestinians into Israel posed too great a security risk. The law was introduced in 2002 to protect Israeli citizens from Palestinians entering the country under false pretext to carry out attacks.
At the beginning of the Palestinian uprising, a few Palestinians who received citizenship through family reunification carried out attacks.
Although the law was an emergency measure and only supposed to last for one year, it now seems to have become permanent.
The court has been accused of upholding racist legislation by Palestinian-Israeli families, legislators and human rights activists.
Only Palestinian women over the age of 25 and men over 35 are eligible to join their families in Israel and eventually receive citizenship.
