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Israel: Joint letter to the members of the Internal Affairs Committee of the Knesset

Mr Yuri Shtern, MK
Chair
Knesset Committee on Internal Affairs and Environment
Kiryat Ben Gurion
Jerusalem 91950
Israel


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27 July 2003

Dear Mr Shtern

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are deeply concerned by the “Proposed Nationality and Entry into Israel (Temporary Order Law) – 2003,” currently before your Committee. If passed, Israel would be violating multiple provisions of international human rights law as well as its treaty obligations to uphold those laws.

According to Article (2) of the proposed law, entitled “Restriction on Citizenship and Residence in Israel,” the Minister of the Interior “shall not grant” Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories a permit to reside or stay in Israel, nor grant them citizenship. To date, almost the only Palestinians from the Occupied Territories who have been able to obtain residence permits are those who have married Israeli citizens. The draft law exclusively singles out Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens, and prevents them from legally residing in Israel.

The proposed law is discriminatory. It targets a category of individuals purely on the basis of nationality or ethnicity, and prevents them from living with their spouses and children. It denies Israeli citizens who marry residents of the Occupied Territories an entitlement enjoyed by all other Israeli citizens – to live with their loved ones in the place of their choice. There is no doubt that the law will severely affect the family lives of Israeli citizens of Palestinian descent and East Jerusalem residents, thus compounding its severely discriminatory effect.

The right to enjoy human rights without discrimination is one of the most fundamental principles underlying international human rights law. This principle appears in virtually every major human rights instrument as well as in the United Nations Charter. Israel has undertaken to uphold the right of freedom from discrimination in several international human rights treaties. Yet the proposed law would violate the protections against discrimination set out in Articles 2 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), and Article 2 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Israel has signed and ratified these conventions of its own free will, and is bound to respect these provisions.


In addition to its obligation not to discriminate on the basis of nationality or ethnic origin, Israel also has a positive obligation under international human rights law to protect the family, including the establishment of families. These obligations are set out in Article 10 of the ICESCR, Article 23 of the ICCPR and Articles 7 through 10 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch urge Committee members to reject the proposed law. We also urge them to ensure that other legislation presented to it is not discriminatory, and complies with Israel’s international human rights obligations – obligations that Israel has chosen to assume.

Yours sincerely

Hanny Megally
Executive Director
Middle East and North Africa Division
Human Rights Watch
Arlette Laduguie
Deputy Director
Middle East Program
Amnesty International

cc. Members of the Internal Affairs Committee
Mr Elyakim Rubenstein, Attorney General
Mr Avraham Poraz, Minister of the Interior
Mr Yosef Lapid, Minister of Justice