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Khatib family photo
Taiseer and Lana Khatib will be forced to live apart under a ruling by the Israel high court, which upheld a 2003 law banning many Palestinians who marry Israelis from living in the Jewish state.
An Israeli high court ruling has left at least one family angry, frustrated and in limbo because the husband, an Israeli citizen, will be forbidden legally from living with his Palestinian wife.
The Israeli Supreme Court reaffirmed late Wednesday a 2003 citizenship law that bans most Palestinians who marry Israelis from living inside the Jewish state. The law is intended to prevent Palestinian migration to Israel on the pretext of family unification.
The law is believed to have prevented thousands of Palestinians from living with their spouses. At the core of the ruling lies the notion that some Israelis see the Palestinians as "the enemy" and as "potential terrorists."
Six years ago, Taiseer Khatib, an Israeli Arab living in the northern city of Acre, married Lana, a Palestinian from the West Bank town of Jenin. They have two children, Adnan, 4, and Isra, 3.
Now the Khatib family faces the deportation of Lana back to Jenin.
"This ruling is all about racism," Taiseer Khatib told NBC News on Thursday. "The Israelis want to change the demography here by reducing the number of Palestinians inside Israel. What choices are left for me?"
Khatib's choices are all bleak. The only way for this family to stay together is by emigrating to another country. Khatib, as an Israeli, by law cannot enter the West Bank and the Gaza strip.
The ruling was handed down by a 6-5 majority.
Judge Asher Grunis, who belonged to the majority, wrote in the ruling that human rights are not a recipe for "national suicide."
Supreme Court President Judge Dorit Beinish wrote in the minority opinion that the disagreement on the issue revolved around one of the most difficult questions in the state's history, the battle against terror while at the same time maintaining the nation's democratic nature.
According to the ruling, about 135,000 Palestinians were granted Israeli citizenship through marriage between 1994 and 2002. Most of them were married to Israeli Arabs. This was a jump from just a few hundred such cases before 1994.
About 20 percent of Israel's citizens are Arabs. They share common roots with the Palestinian community in the West Bank, Gaza and abroad, and frequently intermarry.
The law bans granting citizenship or residency to Palestinian spouses of Israelis but allows for exemptions for those not believed to pose security risks, including Palestinian men older than 35 and women older than 25.
Adalah Arab, a human rights group that petitioned the high court, told NBC News that between 2002 and 2008 about 10,400 families living in Israel applied for a reunification request.
Last year, only 33 out of 3,000 applications for exemptions were approved, Adalah attorney Sawsan Zaher told The Associated Press.
"Israel is considered one of the strongest military countries in the world," Khatib told NBC News. "Are they afraid of my wife? She is not a terrorist; I promise you she doesn't consist of any threat to Israel."
"Our only way of action is to apply to the world and international courts to uncover the real face of Israel," Khatib said. "Can you imagine me raising my children here while their mother will be in Jenin? This is not only crazy but impossible."
Reporting from NBC News' Paul Goldman and The Associated Press.
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Leave a Comment:
So isn't this about the Middle East equivilent of outlawing mixed race couples?
"Khatib, as an Israeli, by law cannot enter the West Bank and the Gaza strip"
So why aren't people upset with the Palestinians not allowing Israeli's going to the West Bank or Gaza???? HMMM. Double standard. Blame everything on Israel.
This is definitely not right. This woman does not appear to be any threat to the state of Israel. The Israeli government is not doing itself and favors in the international community with rulings like this. I can understand that they need to be watchful for sham marriages that are set up for the sole purpose of getting Palestinian terrorists into the country, but this couple has been living together in Israel for six years and have two children who are 3 and 4 years old respectively. This is not some sham marriage to allow a terrorists to immigrate. Keeping families apart like this is not right.
I also question why he is not permitted to move to the West Bank to be with her. Is this an Israeli law or a Palestinian one that prevents him from moving??? If it is a Palestinian one, then they are as much at fault for breaking up this family as the Israelis. It sounds like it is a Palestinian one, since I do not see the Israelis caring if an Arab left the country permanently. In fact, if anything I would expect the Israelis to promote this type of move. Neither side is completely in the right on this one, but it does seem that the Israelis are misusing their own law in this case since this woman definitely does not appear to be a threat and has been living peacefully in Israel for six years.
JS it is good to see you weighing in on this subject ... not like your usual allies the Israeli-firsters who seem only to want war with Iran ... but how do you blame the Palestinians for this absurd law that forbids any marriage between non-Jews and Jews. Forget for a moment that this particular case involves a Palestinian, hell it could be any non-Jew and the result would be the same. It must shame you that your most valuable people on earth could be such ruthless snobs ... how do you manage to console yourself and do you simply wish this issue to go away silently into the night never to bother you again? Where are the war mongers and Israeli-firsters on this issue ...speak up you bums. Your silence is deafening.
Hello,"Some Lame Name Here", and your point is?
mixed race, my God know your history;Abraham had two wives , one bore a male that founded the Arab Semitic branch, one bore a male that founded the Jewish Semitic branch; they are all Caucasians, and have lived and intermarried for about 10 thousand years; the difference between a Arab and A Jew is , different mothers, same father.
wait and they say that israel isn't a theocracy?!?
yup. it is. And so shocking to find that Israel, the gentle innocent lamb of a nation, who only wants to be left alone but steals countries and alters borders to suit itself--could do something so cruel. After all aren't they the humanitarians that shell children who throw a rock at a tank? And allow families to suffer and starve in the street after their homes are bombed for no proven reason?
Interestingly, there was NO trouble over there until Israel became a country by usurping another people's territory.
Sorry, but I am sick of everyone feeling sorry for them, they made their own problems, they're the most armed country in the world, and I hope someday their actions are compensated in kind, whether it be good or bad.
I would offer that couple a home and a place for them and their kids in a minute.....how sad for them. And Palestine needs to stop being as stupid as its enemy, but how could they live there anyway? Israel is bent on their destruction and eradication....no place to raise kids.
@hanseat. Just that it sucked when it happened in our nations past and it sucks now. Besides I easily could have compared it the Nazi government not allowing Aryan Germans to have a Jewish spouse. I thought I'd go a little lighter than that, but you convinced me that I was wrong and should have just gone there to begin with.
@ Judson
This isn't about a marriage between a jew and a non-jew. He is an Arab-Israeli and she is a Palestinian.
Whether he's an Arab and she's a Palestinian is irrelevant. It's segregation sponsored by the state of Israel of those they are prejudiced against to begin with. And what it doesn't say is whether the Supreme Court judges, who are handing down judgements to non-Jews, are themselves Jewish. What it really gets down to is that it's the same thing as when the Nazi's outlawed Jews and others they considered undesirable from getting married just as they outlawed them from owning property. It's arbitrarily punishing those you didn't like in the first place because you can because you have the power. It doesn't matter who is doing this because after WWII this type of behavior is suppose to be considered universally abhorrent.
Totally,it is an apartheid type law.One of many that Israel the supposed "democratic" state in the Middle East has to keep its racist system in place.Until the end of the 1960's the 20% of Israels population that was Arab,was even kept under a type of house arrest in the rural areas of Israel.There were curfews,pass laws,as to where you could live and movement around your own country.Several times those curfew rules even led to massacres of farmers working in their fields pass the curfew.Since the exposure of those crimes,some of those laws were outlawed,but many others stay in place to control the minority population.Could you imagine Americans tolerating something like that in our country in the 21th century.But every time there are protests like in the civil rights movements in the US,they are crushed by violence similar to South African tactics.Israel took a page from the South African apartheid system and even made it worse.They treat their native Israeli Arab population only a bit better than they do the Palestinians.It was telling too in the article, that the couple wasn't even allowed to resettle in the Palestinian territories by Israeli law.While Israel is continuously breaking international laws and settling Jewish settlers there,they won't allow an Israeli Arab and his Palestinian wife to settle together,even there.We Americans need to think when we support Israel with our money and blood,that we are giving our approval to a racist society.One that we would oppose anywhere in the rest of the world.
Some lame comparison, too. Both husband and wife are Arabs, so where's the mixed race here?
Besides, the husband has a choice. Moving to PA controlled territories is prohibited only to Israeli citizens. He can go live in Jenin with his wife, and leave his Israeli passport behind, as well as citizenship and all the benefits thereof. But apparently the benefits of Israeli citizenship outweigh to him the benefits of living with his wife - after all women are cheap in Arab culture.
That's an interesting idea.So the husband who is a born Israeli citizen,though of a minority race should give up his country and the rights of his birth,to move somewhere else because of his racist government discriminatory marriage laws against his race.Hmmm,where have I heard those type of ideas before,Nazi Germany,apartheid South Africa,now Israel and Israels supporters.You guys have drunk deep at the Fascist stream.
To the person who blamed the Palestinians for Israelis not being allowed to live in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority doesn't ban Arab-Israelis from living there. It's an Israeli law, so stop excusing Israel's apartheid legislation.
Way to we fund these idiots
Ahhh... didn't the Nazi's forbid marriage between a pure bred German and a Jew?
I'm so glad to see the practice of miscegenation is alive and well in such a democracy as Israel.
The only difference between these two and pure miscegenation is that instead of banning blacks and whites, it's now Palestinians and Hebrews.
"A plague - on both your houses."
Jacques, please reread the article. He is an Israeli Arab living in the northern city of Acre, married Lana, a Palestinian from the West Bank town of Jenin. They are both Arab, no Jews here.
True,they aren't Jewish Israelis.They just are made to suffer by Jewish Israelis.Laws made by them,administered by them,for their sole benefit.Wow the fact that neither was Jewish makes all the difference in the world,not.
THis seems so absolutely unfair and terrible. The reason for the laws is a real fear that muslims will "outbreed" the Israeli Jewish people. Muslim families often have five or more children whereas the Jewish Israeli's have two or three children. Muslims within one generation would take over Israel by sheer numbers and institute laws that punish Jewish customs while supporting muslim sharia law.
I'm not sure by your post if you support the law,or were just explaining the reasons why.But your right the demographic situation is what the Israelis are afraid of.Their policy is totally racist.That would be like in the US the white population held all power and used it to control the African-American and Hispanic populations growing numbers.That would last 5 minutes or so until those minority groups took to the streets and put a stop to it.
.
Where are the Israeli-firsters and war mongers on this issue ...as usual these bums are too busy calling for war to open their eyes to what is happening to humans right before us in real time. Anyone with human feelings must detest these false prophets of doom ... do they really believe that an all-powerful god would come back and make kings and rulers of such pitiful and despicible beings? Are you people insane? The best you could do would be to throw all those so-called evangelical preachers out on their ears and regain a bit of sanity back into your lives.
shameful behavior, what a messed up region of the world
And the Israelis find yet another way to alienate the rest of the world.
Yeah, Israel really shares our core values. Riiiight.
This is not new.... but I am surprised why this has come to light...which makes me wonder why they decided to post this article...
"Khatib, as an Israeli, by law cannot enter the West Bank and the Gaza strip"
Again who is at fault? You are all blaming Israel, but the West Bank and Gaza will not take an Israeli Muslim. Always blame the Israelis.
you are right spider :) Two wrongs don't make a right... both are racist entities( Israel and Gaza)..I agree with you on this one.
Right Hani ... as Michael wrongly tried to imply above ... this is not a regional problem but strictly an Israeli one
One front in the Arab/ Moslem genocidal war against Israel is to overwhelm the Jewish population. Frequently Arab/ Moslems with Israeli citizenship will marry Moslems from outside of Israel only to bring them into Israel. The couple is free to live in PA controlled areas, or Gaza or any of the 21 Arab/ Moslem controlled countries or any of the 57 Moslem controlled countries or anywhere else in the world. But in MSNBC's anti-Semitic ideology, Israel is not allowed to defend itself. It's disgusting that MSNBC is assisting the Arab/ Moslems in their war to annihilate Israel and to exterminate the Jewish people.
first of all anti-semitic means you hate semites which include arabs. The Jews hijacked the word to avoid the term anti-Jew. Second of all they can go live in the palastenian territories. A sovereign country's law is their own business and therefore stay out of Israel's business just like stop butting into other nations' internal affairs.
israel is a racist apartheid state and millerdougj is an israeli-firster.
Israel is a rogue state. F*ck their pathetic apartheid BS
"Israeli high court keeps Israeli, Palestinian spouses apart"
Who cares, not our problem. It's Israel's law and not our business.
Next
I agree with you
"Is Iran developing nuclear weapons"
Not our problem.Its Iran's law and not our business.
Next
Strange but effective birth control.
How do you say 'Jim Crow' in Hebrew?
The headline:
"Israeli high court keeps Israeli, Palestinian spouses apart"
Should have read:
"Muslim high court keeps Israeli Muslim, Palestinian Muslim spouses apart"
And would have been true, but would not have got the Libs all worked up to blame the Israeli's.
"Khatib, as an Israeli, by law cannot enter the West Bank and the Gaza strip"
You see you stupid Lib retards, if you had read between the lines you would have seen that Khatib is an Arab. There are not too many Arab Jews as they have been killed or run out of Muslim countries. Khatib was criticizing israel for not allowing he and his wife to live there, but why not criticize W.bank or Gaza?
The MSNBC headline was intentional to bring out the Nazi Jew haters and make the bleeding heart liberals suggesting to Khatib that he should bring himself and his muslim wife to the US where they are welcome.
lol what an idiot :) .... are u on acid?
Not acid, beer. Just asking why nearly everyone wants to blame Israel, when the Palestinians are even more racist if they will not even accept muslims just because they are from Israel.
Palestinians are not immune either...but this article is about an " Israeli high court ruling"...stop twisting and provoking.... the article is very clear and this is not the first time I read such articles...Israel like the Gaza is a racist entity..
lately lots of articles are popping up about how moderate jews are being harassed by the Orthodox jews for not adhering to dress codes and women forced to sit in the back of busses... and if you don't see that as racist, then that makes u a heard headed zionist.
Spider-4268760 you really must be high on something...you are not getting the point, NO ONE LIKES ISRAEL. Just accept the fact that its wrong, the guy is an ISRAELI ARAB (yes, A Muslim, but still ISRAELI by Citizenship). I guess you are unable to understand that "ISRAELI" dosent mean "JEW's only", it means all citizens of Israel, which BTW has 20% Arab Muslims living there.
Hey Spider conservative fascist, Isreali soldiers man the checkpoints checking all good and people dimwit.
Wish we would have a checkpoint here to keep them out of our country.
"Khatib, as an Israeli, by law cannot enter the West Bank and the Gaza strip"
The way I read this it sees to me since Khatib is not subject to Arab law, that it is Israeli law that prevents him from going to the West bank or Gaza. Since you are so great at reading between the lines maybe you can tell us between what line you got that it is an Arab law?
The point is Israel has prevented an Israeli citizen from living with his wife in Israel. And after 6 years of marriage and 2 children they want to forceably separate them neither should have to move.
xvet
Because,oh Israeli supporter.The law is an Israeli law that won't let an Israeli Arab like in the occupied territories.Not a Palestinian law that Israel would even obey.Otherwise the Palestinian would have passed a law to forbid the Jewish Israeli settlers from living on the West Bank a long time ago.
They should go on a vacation together, say to a civilized peaceful country such as Spain. And if they like Spain they should stay.
Any goyim who have dated a Jew can tell you this genetic exclusivity is a worldwide trait, which is why they now nurse diseases peculiar to themselves, and well as other inbred traits. Any time you can look at a person and tell his or her genre, you are looking at cousins marrying cousins. It can only go on for so long.
This is bigotry at its most destructive, biological base. Here, the pretext is political; in other places they are not so coy about it. It goes on to create social unrest born of preferential treatment, choices often based on other than 'the content of one's character'; and besides destroying homes, it affects every walk of life, every job, every friendship. It is poisonous and the Israelis will suffer from its continuance.
Separating the wheat from the chaff of our various cultures is an art that can strengthen a people. Surely, as a nation if we've learned one thing, it is the unity of our species, and the power we have together in seeing with our hearts.
Really this is tragic. The Israelis (government) appear to be becoming that which they most detested...their legal position in this matter appears to be leading them to mirror beliefs and attitudes not all that different from the Germany of the 1930's. It appears that their treatment of "some people" is not all that different from the way the old aparteid south african government treated its indigenous population. Perhaps our government should seriously consider treating the Isreali government a bit more like we did the old south african government. It is not this incident that bothers me...it is the thinking and attitudes and beliefs that it represents.
Great response, but no one in the USA wants to listen. Sad as it may be.
Out of the ashes of Nazi racisim, the world bends over backwards for the jewish racist state. They would let them get away with anything forever, even the same tactics as Hitler himself.
This kind of law is only one of series of similar laws that throws crap at every human rights law known to man, just like the nazzis had on their books.
One thing for sure though, history never lies. In the decades and possibly centuries to come, history will look back at these decades with the facts - how Israel treated the Palestinians, how Palestinans resisted and turned to the dark side out of resistance, and how the world let it happen and turned a blind eye, AND how the US continues to pour aid money to a developed nation (israel) when the US itself is bankrupt morally and economically all for the sake of politians keeping their money bags lobbyists happy and their political careers.
Very sad days in the history of mankind when nobody is willing to stand up for what is right. Choice of morally bankrupt silence and acceptance of status quo is just too convenient.
I thought it was a Palestinian Man marrying an Israeli women?... No. My Mistake they all look the same.
All dimwitted bigots tend to look the same too.
My parents were prominent philanthropists who contributed enormous sums of money to Zionist causes, mostly in terms of agricultural, cultural and medical projects. There's a hospital named after them in the Jeruselam area. And yet, every day, some other bit of news like this emerges that makes me sicker and sicker of Israel and more disgusted with its neofascist and racist swing to the wretched right. Any of the idealism about it that my parents inculcated in me as a youth - including the obligatory kibbutz summer, which forty years ago was a major episode in my life - is just about warn away by repeated stories like this one. I'm getting pretty close to the point where I really don't give a damn about it any more.
Then don't give a damn aszfvck!
Khatib's choices are all bleak. The only way for this family to stay together is by emigrating to another country. Khatib, as an Israeli, by law cannot enter the West Bank and the Gaza strip.
Why can't a Muslim couple go to the West Bank or Gaza? Khatib is not a Jew but an Arab! Maybe it's because his wife is not covering her head in a Bukhara or scarf? You are an idiot Old Gator!
Spider were in this article does it say that this is an Arab law?
The point is Israel is forcibly breaking up a family with children. Shouldn't happen in a civilized nation.
xvet
To old Gator:
Sorry for the insults you got here man.I used to be like you.I didn't really know what Israel was doing and bought into their propaganda.Then one day I read a story of some of the things they were guilty of and then saw the comments that Israeli supporters posted on the story.They made me sick,but more important,pissed off.So I started reading about the problems in the Middle East and the history of Israel.The more I read,the more I saw that for years I had been fooled.I only read unbiased history on the conflict,as I was on the lookout to not be fooled by propaganda from the other side as well.A few good books that I started with on the subject were " The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy , by Seymour Hersh" ,"The Passionate Attachment:America's Involvement With Israel From 1947 to The Present,by George Ball ","The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem,by Benny Morris" and "The Birth of Israel:Myths and Realities,by Simha Flapan". Three of the four books are by Jewish authors or as the Israeli supporters like to call them "self hating Jews",their more mild term for any Jew that doesn't support all of Israels actions.Most times they use less mild terms as you saw with you.That used to bother me,until I realized that that means they are afraid of the truth and can only lash out with insults.
Wait ...wait. There is bigotry in israel? nothing to see here folks ....ooh look at little plane up in the sky.
So much for "Strength in Marriage" in Israel huh?
Would you call that a "Small Government State", or a "Government of a Small Thinking State"?
Not apartheid at all!