Israel blocks law that keeps out Palestinian spouses

JERUSALEM, Middle East－Israel's parliament failed to renew a law on Tuesday that bars Arab citizens from extending citizenship or residency rights to spouses from the occupied West Bank and Gaza, in a tight vote that raised doubts about the viability of the country's new coalition government.

The 59-59 vote came after an all-night session of the Knesset, marking a major setback for Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

The new Israeli leader, who had hoped to find a compromise between his hard-line Yamina party and the dovish factions in his disparate coalition, instead suffered a stinging defeat in a vote he reportedly described as a referendum on the new government. The vote means the law is now set to expire at midnight on Tuesday.

"The opposition last night delivered a direct blow to the security of the country," said Bennett on Tuesday, accusing his opponents, including former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of choosing "petty politics" over the nation's wellbeing.

The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law was enacted as a temporary measure in 2003. Proponents said Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza were susceptible to recruitment by armed groups and that security vetting alone was insufficient. Critics derided it as discriminatory toward Israel's Arab minority.

The law has been renewed annually and appeared to have the support of a large majority in parliament, which is dominated by hard-line nationalist parties. But Netanyahu's Likud Party and his allies decided to oppose it to embarrass Bennett and harm his coalition, which includes a collection of eight parties across the political spectrum.

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, a member of Bennett's Yamina party, said the opposition move to block the law's renewal would lead to thousands more applications for citizenship. She accused Netanyahu and his allies of choosing "petty and ugly politics, and let the country burn".

Amichai Chikli, a renegade member of Yamina who voted with the opposition, said the outcome was a sign of deeper issues.

"Israel needs a functioning Zionist government, and not a mismatched patchwork that is reliant on" the votes of Arab lawmakers, Chikli said. He was the only member of his party to oppose the new coalition-led government.

Netanyahu, ousted by the new coalition after 12 years as prime minister, made clear his political goals.

"With all due respect for this law, the importance of toppling the government is greater," said Netanyahu on Monday.

Deep divisions, fragility

Bennett reportedly proposed a compromise with liberal members of the coalition that would have extended the law by six months while offering residency rights to some 1,600 Arab families, a fraction of those affected. But the measure was defeated in part because two Arab members of the coalition abstained. The vote exposed the deep divisions and fragility of the new government.

However, the decision gave some hope to Arab families that have been affected by the law. The law has created an array of difficulties for thousands of Palestinian families that span the war-drawn and largely invisible frontiers separating Israel from East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza territories it seized in the 1967 war that the Palestinians want for a future state.

"You want your security, it's no problem. You can check each case by itself," said Taiseer Khatib, an Arab citizen of Israel whose wife of more than 15 years is from the West Bank city of Jenin. She has to regularly apply for permits to live with him and their three children in Israel.

"There's no need for this collective punishment just because you are Palestinian," he said during a protest outside the Knesset on Monday ahead of the vote.

Agencies Via Xinhua