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Netanyahu: Nation state law grants all Jews ‘automatic’ immigration rights to Israel

August 6, 2018 at 11:14 am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [Twitter]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that the recently approved Jewish “nation state bill” “grants automatic right to Jews” from around the world to immigrate to Israel, Ynet News reported.

“We passed the Nationality Law to ensure the State of Israel would be not just democratic, but also the nation state of the Jewish people – and theirs alone,” he said.

He stated that this was needed “not just for our generation, but for the generations to come. Without the Nationality Law, we cannot guarantee the future of Israel as a Jewish nation state.”

Netanyahu went on: “The Nationality Law first and foremost fortifies the law of return and raises it to another level. This law of course grants automatic right to Jews – and only them – to make Aliyah [immigrate to Israel] and receive citizenship.”

Stressing that the law is targeting the return of the Palestinian refugees, he said: “The Nationality Law prevents, for example, the exploitation of the family reunification clause under which very, very many Palestinians have been absorbed into the country since the Oslo agreement.”

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“This law helps prevent the continued uncontrolled entry into Israel of Palestinians,” he said.

Addressing the Druze who have held protests against the law which they described as a “betrayal” of their years in service for Israel, he said: “The State of Israel is the national state of the Jewish people. Israel is a Jewish and democratic state. Individual rights are anchored in many laws including Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. Nobody has harmed – and nobody intends to harm – these individual rights.”