Summary
Israel’s Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (temporary provision), 5763-2003, barring, for as long as it remains in force, the grant of citizenship, a residence license or a stay permit to an inhabitant of Judea and Samaria or the Gaza Strip — a category that excludes the inhabitant of an Israeli settlement in the area — despite any legal provision including article 7 of the Citizenship Law, 5712-1952, subject to fixed-period exceptions capped cumulatively at six months, a child-separation exception up to age 12, and a discretionary exception for an inhabitant who identifies with the State of Israel and its goals and has acted significantly for the State, or whose grant is of special interest to the State (Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (temporary provision), 5763-2003 (2003), PDF p.1-2).
Details
- The bar (section 2, PDF p.1): the Minister of the Interior shall not grant citizenship under the Citizenship Law or a license to reside under the Entry into Israel Law, and the Area Commander shall not grant a permit to stay in Israel under the security legislation in the area, to an inhabitant of an area as defined in section 1.
- The reservations (section 3, PDF p.1): fixed-period licenses or permits for work, medical treatment or another temporary purpose, cumulatively no more than six months; a license or permit to prevent separation of a child aged up to 12 from a parent staying legally in Israel; and discretionary citizenship or residence under the identification-and-significant-act or special-interest test, “member of family” meaning spouse, parent, child.
- Transition and validity (sections 4-5, PDF p.1-2): pre-existing licenses and permits may be prolonged; an inhabitant who applied before May 12, 2002 and had no decision by the Law’s commencement may receive a temporary-stay permit, but not on that basis citizenship or a temporary or permanent stay license; the Law lasts one year from publication, prolongable by the Government with Knesset approval for up to one year at a time.
- No spouse is named in the primary text: its operation on spouses runs through the override of article 7 of the Citizenship Law, the spouse-naturalisation provision, and the absence of any spouse exception.
Where sources disagree
- Stateless Citizenship (2013) records this Law as a “temporary order” extended nine times, denying Palestinian citizens residency or citizenship status for their Palestinian spouses from the OPT on the basis of nationality, its constitutionality upheld by the Supreme Court in May 2006 (PDF p.83, footnote 32). The primary text states the bar, the exceptions and the one-year renewable validity, and gives no extension count, no spouse framing and no court ruling; both accounts are kept.
- For Palestine — Essays from the Tom Hurndall Memorial Lecture Group names the same law the “2003 Citizenship and Entry Emergency Law”, barring Palestinians married to Israelis from becoming citizens (PDF p.134, footnote 5). The primary text’s title is “Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (temporary provision)”; both names are recorded, under aliases.
Related pages
Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (temporary provision), 5763-2003 (2003), Citizenship Law (1952), Entry into Israel Law, 5712-1952, Population registry and family unification, West Bank, Gaza, Knesset