The Expected Injury to Mixed Families' Rights Following Amendment no. 19 to Israel's Entry Law

The newly suggested amendment no. 19 to Israel's Entry Law, which has passed in the summer of 2006 the first reading in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) assembly, states that people staying in Israel without civic status ("illegal aliens"), will need to leave the country for a period of one to five years (respectively to the length of the period they had spent in Israel without a valid permit). Only after this period they will be given the option to present a renewed application for settling their status in the Israeli ministry of interior.

This bill is clearly undemocratic, and will hurt many sectors in the Israeli society. In particular, its implementation will wreak substantial havoc over thousands of mixed immigrant families living in Israel. Nowadays, there are about 110,000 mixed immigrant families living in Israel: families in which at least one of the spouses is not recognized as a Jew according to Jewish Orthodox law. Many of these families encounter difficulties in obtaining civic status for the non-Jewish spouse, or for other relatives, for example: children of previous marriages, elderly parents of the non-Jewish spouse, fourth generation of Jewish male, parents of minors and soldiers etc.

There are many cases in which members of these families find themselves without any legal status in Israel, due to difficulties placed by officials in the ministry of interior, often for years on end. Should this bill be implemented, it is obvious that members of the mixed families without a valid civic status will be ripped from their families, and will be forced to leave Israel for a period of one to five years, even if they have no option of staying in their original homeland (due to lack of civic status, financial troubles etc). Even as they will return to Israel after this absence, there is no guarantee that their civic status will be settled at all.

Even though this bill is governmental, there is still a chance to thwart it in the second and third reading in the Knesset's assembly. A wide range of political figures oppose this bill, which is nowadays being discussed by the Knesset's interior affairs committee. Among the objectors we find the "Israel Beytenu" party, left- wing parties, Arab parties and certain politicians of the labor party, "kadima" party and the senior citizens party. AMF intends to conduct an intensive public struggle and lobbying activities in order to thwart this clearly draconian bill.