Last update - 00:00 24/09/2007
Court to State: Clarify stance on family reunification ban
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
The State of Israel has two months to notify the High Court whether it will ease restrictions on family reunifications of Palestinians living within the West Bank and their Israeli partners, a High Court of Justice panel ruled Monday.
In response to a B'tselem petition, Justices Dorit Beinisch, Elyakim Rubenstein and Uzi Fogelman ordered the state to clarify whether it intends to maintain its current position that has prohbitted granting of citizenship status to Palestinian spouses of Israelis, citing security considerations since 2000.
"You don't have to decide when the Palestinian state will be founded to say whether one person will be able to reunite with another," Beinisch said. "We are not talking about any diplomatic commitments, but of a concrete examination of [reunification] requests."