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Friedmann: Keep Supreme Court out of immigration, citizenship laws By Tomer Zarchin Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann has proposed an amendment to the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom that would exempt laws relating to immigration and citizenship from judicial review. The amendment would presumably make it even harder for Palestinians married to Israelis to obtain citizenship. Advertisement Currently, the Supreme Court can declare any ordinary law unconstitutional if, in the court's view, the law violates rights enshrined in the Basic Laws. Under Friedmann's proposal, however, it would not be able to declare laws relating to citizenship unconstitutional. The proposal would cover laws such as the Law of Return, the Citizenship Law and the Law of Entry, as well as any other law the Knesset might enact on this subject in the future. However, the amendment seems unlikely to pass: After receiving a draft of the proposal a few days ago, Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak and two senior party members, Shalom Simhon and Ophir Pines-Paz, decided to recommend that their party oppose the bill. Under the coalition agreement, no Basic Law can be amended without the consent of all coalition partners, so Labor's opposition would kill the proposal. Earlier, Friedmann had proposed legislation to bar the court from intervening in security and budgetary issues, but Labor's opposition forced him to drop this idea as well. The current bill has its genesis in a 2003 law that, in response to the security concerns generated by the intifada (then at its height), barred most Palestinians from immigrating to Israel, even if they were married to Israelis. The legislation was introduced after a Palestinian who had been allowed entry under the family reunification program committed a deadly suicide bombing. In May 2006, the High Court of Justice rejected several petitions against this law by a 6-5 vote, even though a majority of the justices deemed it an unconstitutional infringement on the right to marry and the right to equality. The law was upheld only because one of the justices who deemed it unconstitutional nevertheless voted against overturning it, on the grounds that it was a temporary law that was due to expire shortly in any case. However, the law was later extended, with one change (the establishment of a committee that could approve humanitarian exceptions to the ban), and new petitions were filed against it. And yesterday, a seven-justice panel of the High Court issued a show-cause order on the case, indicating that it found merit in the petitioners' position. The May 2006 ruling initially caused an uproar in the Knesset, with several MKs proposing that immigration policy be legally protected from court intervention. In the draft legislation he circulated recently, Friedmann wrote: "The bill reflects the widespread view among the Israeli public that the State of Israel has the right and duty to set filters for the entry, residency and citizenship of those who are not citizens, in accordance with the values of the Declaration of Independence, the Zionist ethos and the state's security, economic and cultural needs." He also noted that international law recognizes a state's right to restrict immigration for various reasons, including preserving a national majority and keeping out security risks. "This proposal," he wrote, "anchors in a Basic Law the State of Israel's sovereignty to conduct an immigration policy ... aimed at upholding its goals - being a democratic state that serves as the national homeland of the Jewish people." Hinting at the Palestinian issue, the draft added: "The rule is that a foreign subject has no presumption of loyalty to the country he seeks to enter, all the more so when he is belongs to a nation involved in a national struggle with the country he seeks to enter." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Stronger than its ills The 60th anniversary celebrations are accompanied by a bad taste. Rise in racism Israeli Arabs say institutionalized racism has increased.

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