Last update - 00:00 15/01/2007
High Court won't hold urgent hearing on 'Citizenship Law'
By Yuval Yoaz and Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent
The High Court of Justice on Tuesday rejected a petition calling for an urgent hearing to overrule the Knesset's decision to extend the validity of Israel's temporary citizenship law by three months.
Meretz MK Zahava Gal-On petitioned the court Tuesday morning, after the Knesset plenum voted to extend the citizenship law, which is intended to prevent the reunification of Palestinians with their Israeli Arab relatives.
Justice Edmond Levy ordered the hearing held within two months. Therefore, it is possible that the hearing over the petition will be held only a month before the expiration of the order, making it difficult for the court to rule in time.
Justice Levy also refused to issue an order which would freeze the expiration date of the law during its hearing.
Legal sources maintain that the High Court of Justice tends to delay sensitive hearings in hope that the situation will change, and will allow the court to abstain from reaching a verdict.
"The Supreme Court does not have many chances to avoid cases, as does the U.S. Supreme Court, which can decide not to hear a specific case... therefore the only tactic is to create procedural twists, so that the issues in the political situation may change," said attorney Avigdor Feldman last year in an interview to Haaretz.
The Knesset plenum ruled Monday evening to extend the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (the Temporary Order known as the "Citizenship Law"), intended to prevent the reunification of Palestinians with their Israeli Arab relatives.
"The government of Israel is deriding the decision of the High Court of Justice and is bringing a racist law which humiliated the Israeli book of law and presents one of the most embarassing disgraces we have known," said Gal-On.
According to Gal-On's representative, attorney Daphna Holetz-Lechner, in May 2006 the High Court ruled that the prevention of family reunification was a disproportionate infringement of rights.
The order was extended in Knesset by a margin of 36 to 12 only in light of the fact that the law would have expired by midnight Tuesday, and the legal procedures being conducted in the Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee remain ongoing.
During the committee meeting, the government asked to extend the law for two years.
Interior Minister Roni Bar-On, who presented the order to the plenum for authorization, said that security considerations necessitated that the order be extended.
He added that in the framework of amending the law there could be an easing of restrictions on humanitarian grounds.
Nearly all of the speakers involved in the negotiations, particularly members of left-wing parties, expressed opposition to extending the order.
During the meeting, Gal-On said said "this order is a disgrace that shames the law books. It is a racist and illegal law which contravenes the Equality Law."
She added that citizens' rights are being violated under the guise of security concerns.
MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz) said "this order reflects discrimination, which the Knesset of the Jewish state must not allow."
At the beginning of last week, a Shin Bet representative told the committee that 38 of 272 - 14 percent - of suicide bombings carried out in Israel by terror organizations were committed by perpetrators in possession of Israeli identification cards offered to them within the framework of family reunification.
This is the fourth time the Knesset has extended the order. In the summer of 2005, restrictions were eased allowing men over 35 and women over 25 to be eligible for family reunification.
As well, military commanders were given authority to provide residence permits for medical treatment in Israel lasting up to 6 months.