Racism in constitutional clothing

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation, headed by Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, will today discuss an amendment to the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom - the amendment is designed to enshrine in law the amendment to the Citizenship Law prohibiting Israeli Arabs from living with their chosen partners.

This racist and discriminatory law, which was passed during the intifada as a "temporary order," is pending a rehearing in the High Court of Justice on the grounds that it violates the basic law.

The new bill, supported by 45 Knesset members and championed by the chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beiteinu), would strip the High Court of the authority to strike down the Citizenship Law amendment as contrary to the basic law. If the bill is passed, it will represent a worrisome erosion of the central basic law governing human rights in Israel.

The explanation attached to the bill is a work of deception. It contends that the amendment to the basic law is intended to integrate a 2006 High Court ruling - approved by a narrow majority of six to five justices - upholding the constitutionality of the amendment to the Citizenship Law. But this is a distortion of that ruling. At least two of the majority justices agreed with the positions held by the minority, which included Aharon Barak and Dorit Beinisch, that the law in its sweeping, all-encompassing scope cannot stand - as Beinisch put it, due to its "disproportionate impact on the right to family life and the right to equality." The law was not abolished at the time because of its ostensibly temporary character. But a so-called temporary order cannot be interpreted as such in its seventh year, with the Knesset repeatedly extending its validity.

The ministerial committee must not support this bill, which deals a mortal blow to the right to family life and the right to marriage as recognized in civilized countries. Immigration, marriage and family-unity requests should be handled on an individual, not categorical, basis. That is also the view of the five dissenting High Court justices, who opposed legislation that does not examine each case individually - as appropriate in a democratic state.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who last week spoke enthusiastically about the integration of Israel's Arab citizens into society, must begin the process of removing this unacceptable amendment to the Citizenship Law from the legal code. And the Labor Party must use the veto power over amendments to the basic law - which it was given in the coalition agreement - to stop Rotem's shameful proposal.